TVA plans to restart long-idled Alabama nuke
Date: 17-May-02
Country: USA
Browns Ferry 1, in Decatur along the Tennessee River in northern Alabama, could be restarted in about five years at a cost of $1.7 billion to $1.8 billion, TVA said in a statement.
TVA's board of directors decided at a public meeting yesterday to restart the unit. TVA estimates that power demand is climbing by about 3 percent per year in the Southeast.
"TVA's financial staff determined that TVA can finance the cost of recovery and continue the trend of debt reduction, but at a slower pace until the unit resumes operation," the company said.
The Browns Ferry 1 unit began service in 1974 but was shut in 1985, along with Browns Ferry nuclear units 2 and 3, amid safety and debt concerns.
Browns Ferry 2 returned to service in 1991 and Browns Ferry 3 returned in 1995. Both units are currently generating power.
TVA said it will also ask the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a 20-year extension on the operating licenses of all three Browns Ferry nuclear units.
The license to operate Browns Ferry 1 expires in 2013, with Unit 2's license set to expire in 2014, and a 2016 expiration date for Unit 3.
Browns Ferry Units 2 and 3 each also have a capacity of 1,065 megawatts. One megawatt of electricity is enough to power about 1,000 homes.
The Nuclear Energy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based lobby group, said the Browns Ferry 1 recovery project will boost the unit's capacity to 1,280 MW.
"Browns Ferry 1 will provide clean electricity for an additional 650,000 homes and business at an affordable cost," the group said in a statement applauding the restart decision.
TVA is a government-owned company headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, and the largest public power producer in the nation, supplying electricity to about 8 million people through Tennessee and parts of Mississippi, Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.
The company has about 29,500 megawatts of generating capacity, about half of which comes from coal-fired power plants, 20 percent from nuclear power plants, 20 percent from hydroelectric dams, and 10 percent from natural gas and oil-fired plants.
The Browns Ferry 1 restart plan is not without opposition.
Anticipating the scheduled TVA board vote, Public Citizen, a Washington, D.C.-based consumer advocacy group, said on Wednesday that the rejuvenation of Browns Ferry 1 would not make economic sense.
"At $1.8 billion, the estimated cost of restarting Browns Ferry Unit 1 exceeds by more than $100 million the U.S. Department of Energy's highest cost estimate for building a new reactor," Public Citizen said in a statement.
"The TVA board should put its rate-payers first and keep Browns Ferry Unit 1 in mothballs, where it belongs," the group said.