Months after learning that the state’s first small modular nuclear reactor won’t be built in Southwest Virginia, local officials are pushing to study the feasibility of placing a smaller nuclear generator, a microreactor, in Wise County.
On Tuesday, a $100,000 grant that would fund the study was approved by the GO Virginia Region 1 Council, an economic development initiative that covers Southwest Virginia.
Microreactors are compact nuclear reactors small enough to be transported by truck. Most would produce up to 20 megawatts of thermal energy that could be used directly as heat or converted to electric power, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy. A small modular nuclear reactor, or SMR, ranges from 50 to 300 megawatts.
Currently, there are no microreactors operating in the U.S., although Russia has several, according to the Idaho National Laboratory, one of 17 national labs in the U.S. Department of Energy complex.
New microreactor designs equipped with advanced technologies are being developed by several organizations and companies, the INL says on its website. Demonstrations of these modern microreactors are expected within the next seven years.
Duane Miller, executive director of the LENOWISCO Planning District Commission, told the GO Virginia council Tuesday that the microreactor technology has been used in submarines and aircraft carriers for 70 years.
LENOWISCO is assisting the county in its effort because the project could be significant to the region, according to Miller. The broader region of interest for the project is Lee, Wise, Scott and Dickenson counties and the city of Norton, he said.
After the meeting, Miller said microreactors could provide a stable and consistent power supply to rural areas like Southwest Virginia, which would reduce dependence on “intermittent” sources like solar or wind while acting as a recruitment tool for economic sectors that use a lot of energy.
“It is our hope that when completed, this project funded by GO Virginia will assist the region on the best path to move forward,” he said.
Microreactors can be tailored to assist with powering critical infrastructure like hospitals, universities and water treatment facilities, he said, ensuring that these services remain operational in rural areas.
The study would identify and analyze a prospective site for a microreactor and the infrastructure that would be required, according to the grant application. It would also determine the baseload power capabilities and help identify customers such as data centers, the application states.
Mike Hatfield, Wise County’s administrator, said his county is interested in the possibility of a microreactor because it “wants to remain an energy leader for Virginia.”
The county is evaluating all forms of energy — gas, solar, wind, hydrogen and nuclear, he said.
The county would likely use a microreactor to provide energy to locations that can’t get efficient energy from the local power grid, such as a data center, he said.
Wise County was one of the localities in the running for a small modular nuclear reactor after Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced in October 2022 that he wanted to deploy the nation’s first SMR in the coalfields region, which was devastated by the downturn in the coal industry.
SMRs are smaller, simpler versions of traditional nuclear reactors that produce about a third of the power and can be built in a factory and shipped to a site.
In March 2024, however, Youngkin said that other sites would be a better fit for the first SMR, though he added that multiple SMRs will eventually be deployed across the state and Southwest Virginia could still get one.
In July, Dominion Energy, the state’s largest utility, announced plans to build the country’s first SMR in the 2030s at its North Anna plant, which is already licensed for a third conventional reactor.
[Disclosure: Dominion is one of our donors, but donors have no say in news decisions; see our policy.]
Two studies regarding SMRs, one a feasibility study and the other examining the supply chain, were conducted for LENOWISCO, and GO Virginia was one of the funders. Asked if those studies would pertain to the microreactor, Miller said it is a “completely different animal.”
The grant for the microreactor study must now be approved by the state Department of Housing and Community Development, and the grant must be matched by an additional $50,000,
The region’s legislators, economic development officials and some local government leaders favored the location of an SMR in the area because of the growth and jobs it was expected to bring. There was also opposition, particularly from environmental groups that said the public was left out of the process and worried that the technology was new and not proven.
Wally Smith, vice president of The Clinch Coalition, an environmental group, said Tuesday that there was a lack of opportunities for public feedback regarding the sites included in the 2023 LENOWISCO SMR feasibility study that resulted in “confusion and distrust” in Southwest Virginia. He said he hopes that local officials “learned lessons from that debacle” and will involve local residents in planning for the region’s energy future.
“In particular, GO Virginia Region One could step up to the plate and make an inclusive and intentional public listening component a condition of funding this recently proposed microreactor feasibility study,” Smith said. That would go a long way towards restoring the public’s trust in that organization’s ability to grow the local economy not just to benefit political and industry VIPs but to improve the lives of local families.”
GO Virginia Region 1 includes the cities of Bristol, Galax and Norton, and the counties of Bland, Buchanan, Carroll, Dickenson, Grayson, Lee, Russell, Scott, Smyth, Tazewell, Washington, Wise and Wythe.