[7] On the same day, Dominion submitted an application for a Combined Construction and Operating License (COL) for a 1,520 MWe GE–Hitachi Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR), designated as North Anna Unit 3.

In 2010, Dominion announced that it had selected a 1,700 MWe, US-specific version of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' (MHI) Advanced Pressurized Water Reactor (APWR) for the potential Unit 3.

[13] On January 19, 2017, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced that its staff had completed its Final Safety Evaluation Report for a Combined License for the proposed reactor.

[15] On September 6, 2017, Dominion Energy paused development activities related to North Anna Unit 3, a decision that nuclear consultant Jim Little suggests may have been due to market conditions and competition from natural gas.

Since the federal construction and operating license is valid for 20 years, Dominion Energy may opt to resume the project if economic prospects for the plant improve within that period.

[19] The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's estimate of the risk each year of an earthquake intense enough to cause core damage to the reactor at North Anna was 1 in 22,727, according to an NRC study published in August 2010.

[22] The North Anna Nuclear Generating Station, located 40 miles northwest of Richmond, lies within the Central Virginia Seismic Zone.

[23] According to the Huffington Post, this 1977 Justice Department memo "..focused on how the power company and federal regulatory officials went to efforts to not make public the knowledge of geologic faulting at North Anna.

A government attorney, Bradford Whitman, did not recommend prosecution at the time, but the power company was eventually fined $32,500 for making false statements during the licensing process, according to the DOJ memo.

At 1:51pm on August 23, 2011, a 5.8 magnitude earthquake occurred, centered south of Mineral, Virginia, eleven miles from the North Anna Nuclear Station.

[27] Also on August 24, Dominion announced that it had ended the "Notice of Unusual Event", the least serious of the NRC emergency classifications, at the North Anna Power Station following inspection of equipment susceptible to seismic activity.

[35] After the Fukushima disaster had occurred six months prior, the Virginia earthquake prompted public fears of a similar nuclear accident at North Anna.

[36][37][38] According to local Virginia media station, WHSV, "The two North Anna reactors are among 27 in the eastern and central U.S. that may need upgrades because those plants are more likely to get hit with an earthquake larger than the one on which their design was based, according to a preliminary Nuclear Regulatory Commission review.

"[citation needed] Dominion has publicly stated that on-site, spent-nuclear-fuel long-term storage canisters shifted during the earthquake along with various building cracks, all while maintaining such damage does not represent unsafe operating conditions.