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How the North Anna Nuclear Power Plant Weathered the 2011 East Coast Earthquake

By Eric McErlain
Dominion Virginia's North Anna Power Station
We're coming up on the first anniversary of the 2011 earthquake that jolted the East Coast of the U.S. While the quake did little damage -- other than fraying the nerves of millions who never experienced even a tremor that small all of their lives -- plenty of folks were moved to ask questions about the safety of nuclear energy facilities, especially as the quake came just months after the accident at Fukushima Daiichi.

As it turned out, virtually all of the plants on the East Coast endured the event without missing a beat. The only exception was Dominion Virginia Power's North Anna Power Station. North Anna was the nuclear facility closest to the epicenter of the quake in Mineral, Virginia.

When the quake struck, the facility shut down safely and automatically, just as it was designed to do. Just ahead of the anniversary of the quake, the team at Dominion Virginia has published a video recounting how its team responded to the earthquake, inspected it to ensure that it could be re-started safely and got the plant back into service: 



As you might recall, 2011 was quite a year for America's nuclear energy facilities, as plants across the country successfully endured a series of extreme weather events, something we chronicled in the following interactive graphic:


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