Gov. Glenn Youngkin still believes that Virginia will deploy and operate the nation’s first commercial small modular nuclear reactor, but it likely will not be in Southwest Virginia, he said Wednesday.
Following a listening session held at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center in Abingdon, the governor told reporters that there are probably other sites that would be “better suited for the first one, and that’s what we’re doing the work on. Of course, what it takes in order to find a good spot for the first one are customers and an operator and on top of that, a licensed spot. And so we’re working across the whole commonwealth.”
Asked whether a specific site or sites have been identified, Youngkin said no decisions have been made and it’s still early in the process.
He added that multiple SMRs will be placed in locations across the commonwealth, and that Southwest Virginia could still host one.
“But as of today, the site work and all of that has really been focused on spots other than in Southwest Virginia. And the primary reason for that is there’s been a couple that have really put their hand up and said, ‘We can run fast,’” he said.
The governor’s remarks came 17 months after he pledged to deploy the state’s first commercial SMR in Southwest Virginia as part of his “all-of-the-above” energy plan. Nuclear power was a part of the plan and was touted as a source for baseload power that is clean and reliable.
About 10 days later, Youngkin stood on a former coal mine site above Norton in Wise County and said that Southwest Virginia has 100,000 acres of former coal mine land, which would make a good location for an SMR because the infrastructure is in place and there’s plenty of available water.
He also said that siting an SMR in Southwest Virginia would be a way to help an area negatively impacted by the downturn in the coal industry.
[Just what is a small modular nuclear reactor? Find the answer to that and more in our previous coverage.]
SMRs are smaller, simpler versions of traditional nuclear reactors that produce about a third of the power produced by the traditional, large reactors. They can be built in a factory and shipped to a site, which saves construction time, reduces the risks and is cheaper. No SMR has been built yet in the U.S.
The state’s two largest utilities, Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power, have both expressed interest in SMRs, and they are part of Dominion’s long-range plans. But neither has committed to building one.
[Disclosure: Dominion is one of our donors, but donors have no say in news decisions; see our policy.]
Dominion operates two large nuclear power plants in Virginia: North Anna Power Station in Louisa County and the Surry Power Station in Surry County. Each station has two large, traditional nuclear units.
Todd Flowers, Dominion’s director of business development, told Cardinal News earlier that the utility was considering sites across the state, including land at its two current nuclear plants.
Those sites are ideal because both offer interconnection to the grid, a community that supports nuclear power, existing operating facilities, a relationship with the locality and the necessary workforce, he said.
A factor that could favor the North Anna plant as a site for an SMR is that the utility is already licensed for a third conventional rector there, and an SMR could serve as a substitute, Flowers said.
Asked for a comment on Youngkin’s remarks Wednesday, Aaron Ruby, Dominion’s manager of media relations, said: “SMRs have a great potential to be a reliable, carbon-free source of power. We’re continuing to evaluate the path forward, including sites and technology.”
The governor’s remarks came the day after the LENOWISCO Planning District Commission released the findings of its second study related to SMRs that focused on the supply chain that would be needed to support such developments.
A main finding of the study was that the district’s service area — Lee, Scott and Wise counties and the city of Norton, plus neighboring Dickenson County — could benefit from participating in the supply chain for SMRs, even if one isn’t built in the region or even the state. Many parts will be needed for SMRs, and there’s no reason some of them couldn’t be constructed there, the study said.
Duane Miller, executive director of the planning district commission, said Wednesday night that he wasn’t surprised that the governor said the first SMR will likely not be built in Southwest Virginia, and like the governor, he said more than one will be built and the region could still host one.
Asked about the supply chain analysis, Youngkin was complimentary of the study and its findings.
Although some legislators and business people in Southwest Virginia have said they would support the location of an SMR in the region because of the jobs and development it would mean, others, including environmental groups, have opposed the idea. They’ve said that the technology is unproven, and that an SMR could negatively impact the health of residents and the environment. Their biggest complaint has been that the public has been left out of the discussions.
“Southwest Virginians are still waiting on a seat at the table in officials’ discussions about locating an SMR in the region,” Wally Smith, vice president of The Clinch Coalition, an environmental group, said Wednesday night.
“Until that happens, no such SMR project should move forward. There would be significant challenges with officials’ proposals to locate SMRs on former surface mines, and local residents’ voices need to be front and center in any future discussions about the feasibility of locating these or any other new energy projects in our region.”
The governor made a number of stops this week across far Southwest Virginia, including visits to Lee County, Wise County, Tazewell County and Abingdon.
State Sen. Travis Hackworth, R-Tazewell County, said during a session at Southwest Virginia Community College in Cedar Bluff on Wednesday afternoon that he had been asking the governor to make such a visit for two years and he was delighted that Youngkin had made good on his promise.
The governor emphasized that he was in Southwest Virginia to listen to people talk about the problems they are facing. In Tazewell County, several speakers focused on the housing shortage, particularly a lack of workforce housing. They said there are businesses that want to come to the area or expand but there are no places for workers to live.
They said they need funding to get rid of a number of blighted properties, particularly mobile homes, so that new housing could be built there. The advantage would be that infrastructure like water and electricity are already in place.
In Abingdon, several people commented on the need for passenger rail to come back through the area to Bristol, and there was discussion about the potential of the inland port proposed for Washington County, which Sen. Todd Pillion, R-Washington County, said would be a true gamechanger for the area.
There was also talk about the dangers of the drug fentanyl, which the governor said kills five Virginians every day.
