And you must have been a good little state, because you have received something much better than a lump of coal.
Santa came a month early this year in the form of an Early Site Permit (ESP) for the North Anna Power Station. Proponents of clean energy and opponents of coal and mountain-top removal should be celebrating this announcement. This is the first step in bringing more clean energy (Virginia gets approximately 38% of it's electricity from nuclear, compared with about 47% from coal) to the state.
Now, if only Dominion will submit a Combined Operating License for the new reactor, such as the one submitted last month by NRG for two new reactors in Texas, then Virginia will be well on its way to providing more power to meet rising demand and ensuring cleaner air for the commonwealth.
I have followed the progress of this application for a couple of years now, and I have personally been to a couple of the public meetings. This permit is the third ESP to be approved by the NRC. Dominion's permit would have been approved earlier, if they had not changed their plans.
A little history
The two reactors at the North Anna site, which first came online in the late 70's/early 80's, are located on Lake Anna, an artificial lake that sits between Louisa and Spotsylvania Counties, in the north central part of the state. It was originally constructed by the power company (now called Dominion) to serve as a heat sink for four nuclear reactors. Only two of these reactors were built.
Since then, the lake has become a popular recreational area, particularly with people from Washington D.C. (not surprising, considering its location) and retirees from that area. In fact, Lake Anna is one of the largest fresh-water lakes in Virginia.
Concerns
Since the lake was originally designed for four reactors and only two were built, Dominion originally submitted a plan to use the lake to cool a third reactor on the site, which they could build sometime in the near future. The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the proposed North Anna early site permit was released by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in November 2004 and was favorable to the idea, finding little impact in the studies that they conducted. Nevertheless, concerns were soon voiced by Lake Anna residents about (1) increased lake temperatures and (2) the effect on fish population in the lake. Strangely, however, the greatest concern expressed about the fish in the lake focused on the stripped bass population, which is a popular sporting fish, but is neither native to the area nor is self sustaining. That is, stripped bass would not exist in Lake Anna if they were not stocked each year by the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
Compromise
As a result of these concerns, Dominion changed its plans (I don't know, but perhaps there was a sport fisherman involved in this decision?) and opted for a hybrid wet/dry cooling tower, instead. This decision will mean extra costs for Dominion, of course (to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars), but it will result in a much smaller impact on the lake temperatures.
One of the results of this change in plans was that Dominion's ESP application was delayed as the NRC considered the changes proposed by the company. Thus, as I mentioned above, Dominion is the third company to be awarded the permit.
What does this mean?
Well, technically, this means that Dominion has a 20-year option to consider the existing North Anna site as the home for another reactor. In other words, they don't have to qualify the site again, while the permit lasts. Personally, I believe that this is the beginning of new clean energy in Virginia, and I anticipate that licensing applications for the new reactor (probably an advanced boiling water reactor design, the ESBWR, by General Electric) will soon follow.
But of course, Dominion would be a fool to try to build a new nuclear reactor; their stock price would plummet, or so many people (including Dominion executives) have said in the past. Well, what has happened to Dominion stock?
Dominion stock price on 2/17/05 (date of the initial NRC public hearings on the ESP): $72.01
Stock price on 10/17/07 (date of the announcements of large-parts orders by GE): $89.19
Stock price on 11/19/07 (the day before the ESP approval): $91.03
Stock price on 11/20/07 (the day after the ESP approval and a stock split): $46.03
Apparently, the Wall Street's fear of new nuclear plants has been rather overstated.
Opposition?
Initially there was considerable opposition to Dominion's plans from the usual suspects -- NIRS, PIRG, Public Citizen, the local chapter of the Sierra Club -- some regional groups, such as BREDL, and a home-grown group called CASE. Where are these folks now? Well, the professionals are still lobbying out of their offices in DC, I'm sure, but the "local" support hasn't been heard from in over a year (August 15, 2006).
Special thanks to Michael Stuart for the tip.