Waterford — Four panelists gathered at the public library Wednesday night to discuss Dominion Energy's Millstone Nuclear Power Plant and answer questions concerning safety, economic impacts and the plant's relationship with the town.

The panelists for the event were Claude Flory, a former Millstone employee and an adjunct nuclear professor at Three Rivers Community College; Abby Piersall, the town's planning director; Dean Rowe, manager of nuclear emergency preparedness for Dominion Energy; and Steve Sinagra, the town's director of emergency management.

Laurie Wolfley, a town resident and professor at the University of Connecticut's Avery Point campus in Groton, moderated the discussion. People attended the event virtually or in person, with many in the crowd being current and former employees at Millstone.

The event was the first of the library's new Talk About Town community conversation series, supported with funding from a Libraries Transforming Communities grant. Library Director Chris Johnson said she is planning to offer the next conversation in late April.

Safety concerns, host town updates

In her first question, Wolfley asked Rowe and Sinagra about the sirens and when residents will know one is not a drill.

Sinagra said the sirens are to direct residents within a 10-mile radius of the station to tune in to one of the emergency broadcast stations on TV or radio. The stations are listed in an emergency preparedness guidebook sent to residents annually and available on the state's website at bit.ly/millstoneepg. The town's website also allows residents to register for alert notifications on their phones.

Rowe said the town tests the sirens on the last Saturday of each month and East Lyme tests the first Wednesday of each month, and any other scheduled tests would be publicized.

For an actual event, Rowe said sirens are used at the General Emergency level, the most serious of four levels defined by Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC, regulations. The levels are: an Unusual Event, an Alert, a Site Area Emergency or a General Emergency.

"Millstone has never declared a Site Area Emergency or a General Emergency," Rowe said. "Since Dominion Energy's ownership in 2001, only two alerts have been declared with no release of radioactive material."

Wolfley then asked about the purpose of ThryoSafe pills and where residents could access them.

Sinagra said the purpose of the pills is to saturate the thyroid gland with nonradioactive iodine. If there were a radioactive release at Millstone, the pills would prevent radioactive iodine from collecting in the thyroid gland. People would be directed to take the pills via emergency broadcast messages. Waterford residents can obtain pills from the town's police department, which is open 24/7, he said. The department can be reached at (860) 442-9451.

In the event of a major incident and evacuation, all surrounding towns are assigned reception centers and host towns to go to. Waterford currently does not have a host town, as its previous agreement with East Hartford expired. Wolfley asked Sinagra about any progress the state Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security has made on an agreement with a new host town.

Sinagra said DEMHS is in the process of securing an agreement with a new location and waiting for approval from the state. In the meantime, the department would direct residents via emergency broadcast messages on which reception center Waterford residents should go to during an evacuation.

Citing The Day's article on the Millstone tour from September, Wolfley asked the panel about the storage of spent nuclear fuel and the safety precautions in place for the process.

Rowe said spent nuclear fuel is stored safely in spent fuel pools and dry-shield casks at an independent site at Millstone.

"Dry storage cask systems are designed to contain radiation, manage heat and prevent nuclear fission," Rowe said. "They must resist earthquakes, projectiles, tornadoes, floods, temperature extremes and other scenarios."

Economic concerns if Millstone were to shut down

The current contract between the state and Dominion Energy is scheduled to expire in 2029. Addressing Piersall, Wolfley asked if the town has contingency plans in place for possible reuse and development of the property if the contract is not extended.

Piersall said the town has no specific plans for the large property, as the town does not control it. She said the town has a partnership with Dominion and they are looking forward to what additional activity, extension of licenses or other opportunities can be done to keep it a hub for clean energy, such as off-shore wind.

The town would lose a significant amount of tax revenue if Dominion were to leave, so Wolfley asked Piersall if she could hypothetically speak of how the town could offset the loss.

"Plan in a way that is reasonably measured and evens out the cost," Piersall said.

She said there is a three-pronged approach to looking at what happens and the overall financial health of the town. The first is taking a look at operational expenses and finding efficiencies, including a deep dive into fleet management and utilities. The second is a focus on development especially in the many commercial and industrial properties the town has to offer. The third one is looking at the long-term opportunities to bring in and expand at the Millstone site.

Wolfley then turned to Flory for an answer on how the property could be remediated for future repurposing.

Flory said the NRC has regulations for decommissioning reactors, which include goals for reducing residual radioactivity. Following regulations, the site could have "unlimited use." Although if spent fuel stays on the property, Flory said, a part of the site would not be reused. He cited the example of Connecticut Yankee, a nuclear power plant located in Haddam Neck that was decommissioned by 2004. He said the property is vacant due to the spent fuel that remains there.

Millstone's relationship with the town

Answering a question about how Millstone operates as a good neighbor, Rowe said the plant is in regular contact with the town and its residents. He said neighbors are notified of any activity at the plant that may disturb or inconvenience them. As for charitable work, Dominion donates more than $400,000 to local nonprofit organizations each year. He added that Dominion continues to offer 16 full scholarships for the Three Rivers Community College nuclear engineering technology program plus 16 paid summer internships at the plant each year.

Dominion also offers five full participation drills annually to emergency management and first responders, Rowe said.

During open questions and comments, many people spoke up. One resident said he would like to see Millstone do more to train teachers in Waterford for an emergency and participate in the town's Rotary Club.

j.vazquez@theday.com