29 Nov (NucNet): US utility Dominion has filed an application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a licence to build and operate a new nuclear reactor unit at its North Anna nuclear power plant in the state of Virginia.
The application is for a combined operating licence (COL) for North Anna unit 3. The company said in a statement on 28 November 2007 that it has not committed to build the new unit, but wants to maintain the option to do so to meet projected increased demand for electricity in Virginia in the next decade.
The application, the third for a new nuclear power plant submitted in less than three months in the US, is for a 1,520 megawatt Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR).
The company is in partnership with GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy and Bechtel Corporation on the project. If the NRC approves the COL, construction could begin in 2010, with commercial operation as early as 2015, Dominion chief nuclear officer David Christian said.
The NRC granted an early site permit (ESP) to Dominion for the North Anna site on 20 November 2007, deciding that the site is suitable to support an additional reactor. An ESP provides a 20-year option for Dominion to consider nuclear among other potential generation sources.
The first ESP, for the Clinton nuclear plant site in Illinois, was approved on 8 March 2007 and the second, for the Grand Gulf nuclear plant in Mississippi, was authorised later that month.
Dominion owns and operates four nuclear power plants in the US with a total of eight units. The plants are North Anna, Kewaunee, Millstone and Surry.
