The Tennessee Valley Authority’s ambitious efforts to broaden its use of nuclear energy recently have drawn attention from the industry’s supporters and detractors alike.
On Sunday, a detailed feature in the Tennessean newspaper outlined the agency’s plans to complete the country’s first new reactor in 17 years, use mixed-oxide fuel (MOX) from re-purposed weapons and study small modular reactors.
TVA’s plans include completion of Watts Bar Unit 2, which received an operating license in 1996 and was the last commercial reactor to do so in the United States, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. If re-started construction is finished by the NRC’s extended permit construction date in 2013, it could be the first U.S. reactor completed in nearly two decades.
In April, agency’s board might also decide whether to restart construction on reactors at the Bellefonte plant in northern Alabama, abandoned in the late 1980s. The new reactors would add to TVA’s existing 6,600 megawatts of nuclear generation from three operating plants. Nuclear energy currently supplies 30 percent of the agency’s power, according to its website.
In the future, some of that may be generated from mixed-oxide fuel. Last week, TVA signed a letter of intent with Areva regarding the use of MOX from a $5 billion facility under construction at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River site that would create fuel from plutonium in decommissioned weapons.
Further, TVA has expressed interest in developing small modular reactors, including a proposal that would use an SMR to power DOE’s Oak Ridge facility.
Stated the Tennessean: “TVA's vision for 2020 is to lead the nation in new nuclear production, which fits in with the Obama administration's interest in nuclear power and has strong backing from Sen. Lamar Alexander.
‘Nuclear is a technology available now that can safely and reliably produce large amounts of electricity without the emissions associated with fossil fuels," TVA spokesman Terry Johnson said in an e-mail. "Nuclear power is also very reliable and can provide the electricity we depend on to power homes, businesses and industries across the TVA region.’”
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