BY TOBY CRAIG
Dominion Energy’s North Anna Power Station is due for its scheduled outage this fall, but this particular outage is scheduled to be longer and more in-depth, as some periodic upgrades align with normal refueling.
Dominion keeps a schedule of “outages” during which they shut down a reactor, alternating between the two at North Anna to make sure that there’s always power being generated, for maintenance, repairs, and refueling that can’t be done during routine operations.
Generally, these refueling outages occur every 18 months. During these outages, hundreds of specialized supplementary workers (welders, electricians, equipment specialists, etc.) come in from other areas to work on the reactor and equipment. Outages typically last 30 days, but this upcoming outage will stretch much longer to accommodate the expanded scope of work.
Lake Anna Life & Times reached out to Dominion and Media Relations Spokesperson Tim Eberly kindly clarified the details of the upcoming outage.
Duration
North Anna’s Fall Outage will be the 31st refueling outage for Unit 2 and will stretch for 100 days, nearly 3 times as long as a “typical” one. Dominion is unable to provide specific dates for the start and end of the project as it is business sensitive.
Scope of Work
During the upcoming outage Dominion crews will focus on the 18 month refueling of Unit 2, as well as completing Station upgrades related to the 20 year extension of the North Anna Power Station’s federal operating license. Upgrades for license renewal include replacing a main condenser, several feedwater heaters in the turbine building and a polar crane in the containment building.
Dominion will bring on an additional 2,000 supplemental workers during this outage to support the refueling and maintenance of Unit 2.
Looking Towards The Future
The maintenance of this outage will support safe and efficient operation of North Anna Power Station for years to come, as well as keep fuel replenished, as Mr. Eberly explained,
“The primary purpose of this outage is to refuel Unit 2, which produces enough carbon-free electricity to power more than 235,000 homes at peak output. Together, both units at North Anna can power about 475,000 homes, which amounts to 17% of all electricity generated by Dominion Energy Virginia each year. We also use outages to perform critical upgrades and maintenance that enables North Anna to continue generating electricity for its 80-year operational life, which will stretch into 2060.”
There has been much public discussion about Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) since Dominion began evaluating deploying those at North Anna in 2020, but Mr. Eberly clarified that this upcoming outage was unrelated to any potential SMRs around the Lake and was purely for refueling and maintenance of Unit 2. According to Dominion Energy’s website, the earliest SMRs could be operational at North Anna is the early-to-mid 2030s.
Impacts on Water
With Lake Anna down almost two feet as of Monday August 17th, residents are understandably concerned with anything that could possibly impact water levels. As the current drought causes issues with wells and navigating certain parts of the Lake by boat compounded by concerns over water use by data centers as they come online, residents are worried if an outage and an extended one at that could further impact water levels at either the Waste Heat Treatment Facility (WHTF) (“private” side) or the rest of the Lake (“public” side).
Dominion’s spokesperson assured residents that “whenever there is an outage, WHTF water levels may drop a number of inches (8.5”) when circulating water pumps are secured for the unit being refueled. However, no other changes are expected from this outage.” It seems that drop in the water levels should only be during the refueling phase of the outage and likely won’t extend through the maintenance portion of the outage process.
