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North Anna power plant seeks ESP renewal
Dominion Energy Virginia is seeking a 20-year renewal of the early site permit (ESP) the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued for its North Anna nuclear power plant site in Virginia. North Anna’s current ESP is set to expire on November 27, 2027.
On July 14, Dominion submitted the ESP renewal request for North Anna; the site in question is adjacent to Unit 1 and Unit 2 of the Louisa County, Va., facility. The NRC acknowledged receiving the application on July 28 and will now review the application before docketing it in the Federal Register and commencing with the review process.
John Parmentola, John Rawls
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 61 | Number 1 | January 2012 | Pages 9-14
Plenary | Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems | doi.org/10.13182/FST12-A13389
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Nuclear power has much to offer in addressing the nation's energy security needs in an environmentally acceptable manner. But today's fission technology cannot accomplish this without adding to the ever-increasing volume of high-level waste; these waste concerns may be the limiting factor in the use of nuclear power. Breeder reactors had been considered as a way to solve this problem; however, because of cost and proliferation concerns, breeders are increasingly unlikely to be commercialized. In an attempt to allow nuclear power to reach its full economic potential, General Atomics is developing the Energy Multiplier Module (EM2). EM2 is a gas-cooled compact fast reactor that augments its fissile fuel load with either spent fuel or depleted uranium. This provides the additional fertile material to allow the reactor to both create and burn fuel in situ. This results in a core that will last decades without fuel supplementation or shuffling. The end-of-cycle fuel can be treated in a manner that does not separate actinides, permitting reuse in subsequent generations at reduced proliferation risk. Proliferation resistance is further enhanced because no enrichment is required beyond that needed for the first generation fuel load. Waste problems are mitigated by several factors: higher burnup, fuel use in multiple generations, and conversion of existing waste to energy.