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Virginia Mercury
Dominion seeking small nuclear reactor proposals
By Charlie Paullin,
2024-07-11
Inside the domes are the North Anna Power Station nuclear reactors that heat up water used to turn an electricity generating turbine in the building on the right. (Charlie Paullin/Virginia Mercury)
LOUISA COUNTY – Past the security gate at the North Anna Power Station, beyond the waste storage field and near a lagoon where water cools, two tan domes stand. They house traditional nuclear reactors that each produce about 945 megawatts of electricity for a combined total of over 1,800 megawatts. On Wednesday, Dominion Energy announced its vision to build a scaled-down version of the reactors, called a small modular reactor, in the next decade, to produce up to 300 megawatts.
“Today, Dominion Energy Virginia is excited to announce that we have issued a request for proposals from leading SMR nuclear technology companies to potentially develop Virginia’s first SMR here at North Anna,” said the utility’s chair, president and CEO Bob Blue.
Blue made the announcement of the utility’s search for SMR design plans at Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s signing of Senate Bill 454 , legislation Sen. Dave Marsden, D-Fairfax, carried this past session that allows the utility to recover pre-construction costs for a small modular reactor, including the RFP process, from ratepayers.
Bob Blue, chair, president and CEO of Dominion Energy, speaks at the North Anna Power Station. (Charlie Paullin/Virginia Mercury)
SMRs are what their name suggests: smaller generation sources that use a nuclear reactor to heat up water, creating steam that turns a turbine to make electricity that is delivered to the grid. While smaller than traditional reactors and touted to have increased safety measures, SMRs rely on highly-enriched, low-assay uranium as fuel that turns into radioactive waste through the process, which doesn’t emit planet-warming greenhouse gasses.
Russia and China are the only countries that currently have SMRs in commercial operation, while several other countries are in the developing and licensing process for one. The closest the U.S. has come to bringing one online was an SMR planned by NuScale Power in Idaho before it was canceled after costs ballooned to $9.3 billion.
Dominion, state and elected officials during the signing of Senate Bill 454. (Charlie Paullin/Virginia Mercury)
The push for SMRs in Virginia comes as a way to meet unprecedented load growth projected for Virginia’s electric grid — particularly in Dominion’s service territory of Northern Virginia, the Richmond region and the Hampton Roads area — over the next 15 years, as energy hungry data centers proliferate in the state.
To also meet that demand, Dominion is pursuing offshore wind and natural gas generation sources to provide dispatchable energy when their solar generation sources may not be producing power and until battery storage technology is further developed.
Eric Carr, Dominion Energy president of nuclear operations and chief nuclear officer, left, sits with Sen. Dave Marsden, D-Fairfax, at the North Anna Power Station (Charlie Paullin/Virginia Mercury)
Marsden’s bill allows Dominion to recover the preconstruction cost of an SMR through a rate adjustment clause, a fee that is tacked on to bills for project costs, for the design of an SMR, readying a site for one and licensing fees. The bill caps any recoverable amount to $1.40 a month for a typical residential customer for Dominion. The utility has said it would submit its filing to recover those costs with its regulators, the State Corporation Commission, in the fall with a “substantially” lower request.
Part of that pre-construction process is the issuance of the RFP, which is confidential, to seek designs to build an SMR at the North Anna site.
Republican Gov. Glenn Younkin speaks during a bill signing at Dominion’s North Anna Power Station. (Charlie Paullin/Virginia Mercury)
Youngkin, who has pushed for nuclear and natural gas use as part of his “ All of the Above ” energy plan to meet grid demand instead relying on renewable sources, said at the signing he is confident the SMR will be built because of Dominion’s experience running nuclear power and the utility’s responsible assessment of the technology.
“I think the process that Dominion and [Appalachian Power Company] are going through as they review small modular reactors is a very responsible one,” said Youngkin. “They will make a decision as to how to deploy that technology with the best engineering firms, the best construction firms and of course the best supply chain. … I think we have all of the advantages to make this a big success, but also a reliable and safe one as well.”
Blue noted that the RFP does not commit Dominion to building an SMR, but, “an important first step,” to evaluate the technology at the North Anna site.
If an RFP is chosen, then Dominion would seek a needed license from the Federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission and then begin the process for any other new generation facility, which includes approval from the SCC. A third license that Dominion already holds for the North Anna site would not be eligible for any new SMR that may be built.
Editor’s note: This story was updated to correct how much power each of the traditional reactors at the North Anna Power Station produce.
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