Virginia Quake: More Aftershocks Reported; North Anna Nuclear Plant Still Shut Down

The earthquake that rattled much of the east coast on Tuesday is still producing aftershocks in central Virginia.

The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a temblor of magnitude-4.5 at 1:08 a.m. (EDT) located about 5 miles from the town of Mineral and 3.1 miles deep.

This was at least the fifth aftershock in Virginia following the quake on Tuesday which registered at magnitude-5.8

Amy Vaughan, a geophysicist with the National Earthquake Information Center in Colorado, told the Richmond Times- Dispatch that the number of aftershocks has been remarkably low.

She added that there will be more aftershocks in the coming days, if not weeks.

Local police authorities reported no major problems arising from the tremor. Dominion Virginia Power also said it had encountered no problems from the most recent aftershock.

However, the North Anna nuclear power station remains out of service. Dominion Virginia, which runs the plant, assured however that a check revealed no damage to the reactors.

North Anna was shut down on Tuesday when the quake shook loose electricity transformer switches and the station lost its offsite power feed.

In the earthquake, the shaking actually opened the contacts of the switches in the plant transformers, said David A. Christian, CEO of Dominion Generation.
“The transformers were intact. They were not, in fact, damaged.

Dominion Virginia would not say when they expect the reactors to start generating power again. North Anna reportedly accounts for almost 13 percent of the state’s electric generation capacity.

The North Anna units are designed to withstand a magnitude-6.2 earthquake.

Dominion Virginia and Dominion Generation are both units of Dominion Resources (NYSE: D)