Winsome Earle-Sears wants to see a small nuclear reactor developed in Wise County.
The lieutenant governor and Republican candidate for governor fervently endorsed the idea Thursday afternoon during a campaign event in Marion.
Earle-Sears met briefly with a friendly audience of about 50 business owners and entrepreneurs in the Smyth County seat, during what was billed by her campaign as a “roundtable.”
It was a relatively unusual appearance for Earle-Sears, who has avoided many aspects of a traditional campaign for governor.
In Marion, she had a lot to say about energy and the economy, including an expression of support for bringing “micro nuclear” energy to Wise. If elected, she said, “we will set that up.”
In 2023 and early 2024, Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Southwest Virginia economic developers were looking closely at Wise County for potential development of small modular nuclear reactors. A few months later, Dominion Energy and other entities announced plans to launch small modular nuclear energy projects elsewhere in the commonwealth. But economic developer and community leaders in far Southwest didn’t give up. (Disclosure: Dominion is one of our donors but donors have no say in news decisions; see our policy.)
Wise County remains interested in nuclear energy projects. The GO Virginia Region 1 Council recently awarded the county $97,500 to pay for a feasibility study of placing a nuclear microreactor in the county. Microreactors are compact reactors that can be transported by trucks and would produce up to 20 megawatts of thermal energy that could be used as heat or converted to electric power. County Administrator Mike Hatfield said recently the county is working with the new Virginia Nuclear Hub on the study, which will also look at possible sites.
The county’s November election ballot also includes a related referendum on whether the county could participate in a local electric authority to serve large businesses such as data centers that need new power generation capacity. Hatfield said this summer the county doesn’t have SMRs in mind with the proposed electric authority. The county would be more interested in a natural gas power plant, he told Cardinal then.
Raising questions about the proposal is Southwest Virginia Nuclear Watch, a coalition of five groups including the Clinch Coalition environmental advocacy group.
Earle-Sears said she hears stories from this region of people facing $800 monthly electric bills and intends to work on providing relief.
She blamed Democrats for the passage of the Virginia Clean Economy Act, claiming it eliminated a potential 11 million gigawatts of new power generation from the grid. If elected, she will work to repeal it, she said.
Democratic candidate Abigail Spanberger says she will work to cut electric bills, but Spanberger only supports solar and wind energy, Earle-Sears asserted. Instead, Earle-Sears said, Virginia needs energy produced by coal, gas, nuclear facilities and renewables.
However, according to Spanberger’s campaign, she supports a variety of energy sources including solar, small nuclear reactors and nuclear fusion, geothermal and hydrogen, along with boosting energy use reduction programs, home weatherization and advanced energy storage.
Earle-Sears was running late for the event and dashed out at the end, bound for another event. Her campaign said the candidate didn’t have time to field questions from news media.
The event was held at the Francis Marion Hotel and hosted by its owner, Joe Ellis, and county Commissioner of the Revenue Bradley Powers.
See our previous interviews with Earle-Sears and Spanberger on energy policy.
For more on where the candidates stand, see our Voter Guide.