Dominion says plans unchanged for reactor license

Dominion Virginia Power said Monday that it intends to move forward with plans for a third reactor at its North Anna Power Station as the international nuclear energy industry reels from the disaster at the Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Japan.

"We're going to continue seeking the combined operating license," said Thomas F. Farrell II, chairman, president and CEO of Dominion Resources Inc., the parent company of Dominion Virginia Power.

He noted that the utility has not actually made a decision to build the unit. The company wants to keep the option open to meet projected demand for electricity.

Fears about nuclear safety that took a generation to overcome after the accidents at Chernobyl and Three Mile Island are resurfacing around the globe. They are casting new doubt on a controversial energy source that has seen a resurgence.

Germany temporarily halted plans Monday to extend the life of its nuclear power plants, and Switzerland has suspended its plans to build and replace nuclear plants.

In the U.S., Rep. Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., is calling for a moratorium on any new construction of nuclear power plants.

But Atlanta-based Southern Co. said Monday that it does not expect delays as it attempts to break ground on the nation's first nuclear reactors in a generation.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-7th, expressed support for the development of nuclear power.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is reviewing Dominion's application to build and operate North Anna Unit 3, with a decision expected in 2013. Dominion Virginia Power operates four commercial nuclear power reactors in Virginia, two at North Anna in Louisa County and two at Surry Power Station in Surry County.

The damage at the Fukushima plant stemmed more from the tsunami that hit Japan than the earthquake that caused it, said David A. Christian, CEO of Dominion Generation, which handles the company's electric generating operations.

Dominion Virginia Power's four nuclear reactors are different in design from the Fukushima plant's, Christian said.

However, Dominion Resources owns a reactor that is shut down at its Millstone station in Connecticut similar to the Fukushima reactor, Christian said, and the Virginia utility has offered to make equipment from that plant available to the Japanese for whatever use might be helpful.

Dominion Virginia Power's nuclear power plants were designed to be able to withstand catastrophic events like earthquakes, hurricanes and flooding, officials said. And, Christian said, "we've done nothing but make them safer over the years."

Larry P. Atkinson, an Old Dominion University oceanographer, said he's aware of no tsunami in this part of the country in human history.

The Surry plant, which is about 40 miles up the James River from the Atlantic Ocean, is protected from a hypothetical tsunami by the measures that safeguard it from hurricanes, Christian said. The North Anna plant is more than 100 miles from sea but is located in a seismically active area.

"We've had moderate earthquakes out there in central Virginia ever since the state was settled," said Martin Chapman, who does seismic research for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Geological Survey and is director of the Virginia Tech Seismological Observatory.

"I'm confident the (state's nuclear power) plants would perform very well if we have repeats of the earthquakes we have had in the past."

Virginia has had more than 160 earthquakes since 1977, 16 percent of which were strong enough to be felt, according to Tech's Seismological Observatory. Virginia's largest recorded earthquake — with a magnitude estimated at 5.5 to 5.8 — hit Giles County in 1897. It is the third-largest in the eastern U.S. in the past 200 years.

McDonnell said the state should continue to push for more nuclear power. "All energy development is inherently dangerous," the governor said.

And he said Lynchburg, where nuclear energy companies Areva and Babcock & Wilcox are located, could be the U.S. nuclear energy capital.

Said Cantor: "We certainly want to get to the bottom of it and ... learn any lessons from Japan's experience. But nuclear power is an essential part of the energy mix of this country. And the president has said so, and I share that position."

Dominion Virginia Power should do more to pursue renewable energy and energy efficiency instead of planning for another reactor at the North Anna nuclear power plant, said Glen Besa, director of the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club. "Both are cheaper than new nukes." He added that tornadoes and hurricane events "could challenge North Anna safeguards."

pbacque@timesdispatch.com

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