[Infowarrior] - Virginia nuclear plant shut down by quake

[Richard Forno]

Virginia nuclear plant shut down by quake

By the CNN Wire Staff
August 23, 2011 3:43 p.m. EDT

http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/23/virginia.quake.nuclear/

(CNN) -- Tuesday's Virginia earthquake triggered the shutdown of a nearby nuclear power plant and "unusual event" declarations at nine others across the East Coast, U.S. authorities reported.

Dominion Virginia Power said both reactors at its North Anna plant, less than 20 miles from the epicenter of the magnitude-5.9 quake, shut down after the first tremors. Amanda Reidelbach, an emergency management spokeswoman  for Louisa County, said the plant was running on emergency power and was venting steam, but there was no release of radioactive material.

Dominion Virginia said reactors at its other nuclear station, the Surry plant near Newport News, were still running.

David McIntyre, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said North Anna and Surry declared an "unusual event," the lowest level of emergency at a U.S. nuclear plant. Other plants issuing similar declarations were the Calvert Cliffs plant in Maryland; Pennsylvania's Susquehanna, Three Mile Island, Limerick and Peach Bottom plants; and the Oyster Creek, Hope Creek and Salem plants in New Jersey.