The report concludes there are no safety aspects that would preclude issuing the license for construction and operation of the proposed reactor, adjacent to two operating reactors approximately 40 miles northwest of Richmond.
The staff will provide the report and the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on the North Anna application to the Commission for the mandatory hearing phase of the licensing process. In the mandatory hearing, expected to take place later this year, the Commission will examine whether the staff’s review supports the findings necessary to issue a license.
Following the mandatory hearing, the Commission will vote on whether to authorize the staff to issue the license. Dominion Virginia Power submitted its license application for North Anna on Nov. 26, 2007, for permission to build and operate an Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor at the site. The NRC certified the design in 2014.
The NRC’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards independently reviewed those aspects of the North Anna application that concern safety. The committee provided the results of its review to the Commission on Nov. 15, 2016. The NRC issued an Early Site Permit for North Anna in November 2007, and the agency supplemented the permit’s environmental review for the proposed North Anna reactor in March 2010.
