Utility quits North Anna expansion project

Tuesday, 1 March 2011

Old Dominion Electric Cooperative (ODEC) has announced its decision to pull out of the project to build a third nuclear reactor at the North Anna nuclear power plant in Virginia. 

 

ODEC owns an 11.6% interest in the two existing reactors at North Anna and takes a corresponding share of the electricity generated by them. Dominion Virginia Power owns the remaining 88.4% stake in North Anna units 1 and 2, and is responsible for their operation. ODEC had been expected to take a similar stake in the proposed third reactor at the site but has now said it will not participate in the project.

 

How the third reactor would appear next to the existing two units at North Anna (Image: Dominion)

  

ODEC president and CEO Jackson Reasor commented, "While we consider nuclear generation an important part of our diversified portfolio of energy resources ... our board of directors and senior management have determined that participating in this proposed nuclear reactor project does not fit with our long-term plans."

 

He added, "ODEC and Dominion Virginia Power are currently working through the logistics of our withdrawal as a participant in the proposed project." The company said its interest in the existing North Anna reactors and "arrangements relating to the operation and maintenance of these units will not be affected by ODEC's decision not to participate in the proposed third unit."

 

ODEC is a generation-and-transmission cooperative providing wholesale power to 11 local distribution cooperatives in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. ODEC has a number of small cooperatives as members - not-for-profit organizations owned by their consumers, numbering some 1.2 million in the mid-Atlantic region.

 

Dominion perseveres 

 

Dominion Virginia power's parent group said that it is "not changing its position" on a potential new unit at North Anna noting that new capacity is needed to meet "a substantial shortfall in electric power generation in the next ten years."

 

The company's president and CEO, Thomas Farrell, said, "We respect ODEC's decision not to pursue an ownership stake in unit 3... While Dominion has not decided on the schedule to build the unit, the company will continue to move forward with the federal combined construction and operating licence (COL) process and preliminary site development work."

 

The North Anna site received an Early Site Permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in November 2007, declaring the site suitable for a new nuclear plant on safety, environmental and related grounds. Dominion applied in the same month for a COL, referencing GE-Hitachi's Economic Simplified BWR (ESBWR). This was revised in May 2010 to reference Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' Advanced Pressurized Water Reactor (APWR) instead.

 

In a statement, Dominion said: "The company will reassess the North Anna project schedule as the NRC approaches making a decision on the station's combined operating licence application, currently anticipated in 2013."

 

Researched and written

by World Nuclear News