Officials working to sign first tenant for mega-park

Comment: Please read the articles below about changing the mega parks names to include words like: "Energy or Clean"! Is this a Telltale side of the future of so call mega-Park, maybe this will be the location of the Uranium Mill???

By Denice Thibodeau

Published: July 20, 2009

Danville and Pittsylvania County leaders are working to sign the first tenant to the region’s first industrial mega-park, if all the details can be worked out with American Municipal Power.

According to a presentation given to the Regional Industrial Facility Authority, AMP may build a natural gas-fired, 270- to 550-megawatt electricity generating plant in the southwest corner of site. The plant would provide intermediate and peaking power needs to its members, including Danville, and would employ up to 35 people.

Danville Deputy City Manager Joe King said the deal isn’t final yet, but commented that it is “close.”

The plant would cost between $321 and $528 million, depending on whether AMP decides on the 270 or 550 megawatt facility, and would require the company to construct a $25 million high-capacity electric transmission line and interconnection facility at the Axton American Electric Power substation located 10 miles northwest of the proposed site in the mega-park.

RIFA also proposes to name the mega-park on Berry Hill Road the “Southern Virginia Energy Park.”

But first, AMP wants assurances from both the city and the county that the plant’s water, wastewater and natural gas needs will be met.

Danville City Manager Lyle Lacy and Pittsylvania County Administrator Dan Sleeper have jointly sent a letter to AMP supporting the project, but resolutions of support have also been asked for from Danville City Council and the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors.

City Council will vote on whether to support the proposal tonight at its regular meeting, at 7 p.m. at the Municipal Building on Patton Street.

• Contact Thibodeau at dthibodeau@registerbee.comor (434) 791-7985.

http://www.godanriver.com/gdr/news/local/danville_news/article/officials_working_to_sign_first_tenant_for_mega-park/12587/

Areva will help build Ohio ‘clean energy park’

By Bryan Gentry

Published: June 18, 2009

Areva announced today that it is joining in an effort to create a “clean energy park” in southern Ohio.

New Feature

The park would be built at the site of a former nuclear weapons facility and could eventually include a nuclear power plant, possibly one designed by Areva.

Duke Energy, USEC Inc., and UniStar Nuclear Energy are also members of Southern Ohio Clean Energy Park Alliance.

Areva spokeswoman Susan Hess said it is too early to know how the project could affect the company’s employ-ees in Lynchburg. Areva will be responsible for technical analysis of the site and preparation of licensing documents, but the company has not decided which of its sites will perform that work.

She said that the consortium of companies has not chosen which reactor technology to use, but Areva hopes its U.S. Evolutionary Power Reactor is chosen. “Certainly a U.S. EPR offers a lot of benefits to the region in Ohio as well as (in Lynchburg), because it would mean jobs in both places.”

UniStar Nuclear Energy, one other member of the partnership, is a joint venture between Constellation Energy and Electricite de France that was formed to help deploy the EPR in the U.S.

For more information on Areva’s involvement with the Ohio project, read Friday’s edition of The News & Ad-vance and check back with NewsAdvance.com.

http://www.newsadvance.com/lna/news/local/article/areva_will_help_build_ohio_clean_energy_park/16947/