If you’ve driven through Hampton Roads, chances are you’ve passed some small modular reactors – known as SMRs. They’ve been used by nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers made in Newport News.
Now, however, scientists and engineers hope to design and build models for the commercial market, and Dominion Energy’s CEO Bob Blue says the utility is looking for a partner to create the next generation of SMRs. A new law will allow the company to recoup the costs from its customers.
“The new law contains cost caps limiting SMR cost recovery to no more than $1.40 per month for a typical residential customer.," he explains.
Governor Glenn Youngkin was at Dominion’s North Anna nuclear plant to sign the bill in support of SMR development. He said more power would be needed to supply a growing number of companies in the Commonwealth including data centers to support artificial intelligence and indoor farming.
He praised Dominion’s investment in the largest offshore wind farm in the nation, but he claimed the state could not build enough wind or solar parks to power "the Virginia of the future."
Youngkin has called the development of a first commercial SMR Virginia’s moon shot, but there are many other states competing with the Commonwealth, and experts who say small nuclear reactors would create more radioactive waste and bigger risks to public health and safety.
