TVA asks government to renew nuclear plant permits

The Associated Press
Published: August 28, 2008

KNOXVILLE, Tennessee: The Tennessee Valley Authority, faced with growing electricity demand and rising coal costs, asked regulators Wednesday to renew construction permits for two unfinished nuclear reactors it virtually abandoned 20 years ago.
Knoxville, Tennessee-based TVA, among the first to join a recent push to build new reactors around the country, hasn't decided whether it will complete the Unit 1 and 2 reactors at the Bellefonte site near Scottsboro, Alabama. But it has budgeted $10 million this year to study what would be involved.
The request is complicated by another project TVA is considering for the same site — two additional reactors for which TVA has applied for a combined construction and operating license with partner NuStart Energy Development LLC.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Ken Clark said TVA's environmental reviews for the new reactors assumed they would use cooling towers and other infrastructure built for the older unfinished reactors but didn't account for the finishing of the older reactors.
Now, the NRC staff will have to decide if the old construction permits for Units 1 and 2 can be reactivated or if new permits will be required, Clark said.

TVA has made no final decision on whether to build any of the four reactors.
TVA Chief Operating Officer Bill McCollum said Wednesday the federal utility will need to add a major new power plant or reactor every five to seven years to meet growing demand. TVA supplies electricity to 8.8 million consumers in Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.