Dominion’s North Anna Power Station to be Operating within 10 Days (D)

Dominion Virginia Power, a subsidiary of Dominion Resources Inc. (NYSE: D), today said that it began the restart of North Anna Power Station after receiving permission from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The permission came after two months of inspections, testing and engineering and seismic analysis showed no functional damage to the station from the August 23 earthquake.

The company said that control room operators initiated the restart process for Unit 1 of the power plant under the oversight Dominion nuclear officials and NRC officials. Once Unit 1 is brought online safely, the company will start the same process with Unit 2. The plant is expected to return to normal operations within 10 days. However, there could be some delays if operators decide that additional checks or maintenance is needed.

David A. Heacock, President and Chief Nuclear officer at Dominion Nuclear, said that the company has demonstrated to the NRC that safety is its first priority. Heacock said that the company is confident that North Anna is safe and ready to be restarted. He added that the station suffered no functional damage from the quake and is ready to resume generating clean, low-cost energy safely for customers.

The twin reactors at North Anna were shut down automatically on August 23 after a 5.8 magnitude earthquake hit near Mineral, Virginia, shaking Central Virginia and much of the East Coast.  Soon after the earthquake, the company began a program of inspections, testing and analysis to make sure the station was undamaged and capable of being safely restarted.

Eric Leeds, Director of NRC’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, said in a statement that NRC is satisfied the plant meets its requirements to restart safely and will monitor Dominion’s ongoing tests and inspections during startup of both reactors.

Post Written By: Ed Liston Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.