In the three weeks since a string of tornadoes swept across much of the South, the Tennessee Valley Authority has made progress in repairing its power distribution network – enough so that it brought unit 1 of the Browns Ferry nuclear plant back online Friday.Unit 1 is the first Browns Ferry reactor back online since the tornadoes damaged several of the lines that provide power to the plant. While diesel generators kicked in as planned and external power was not lost completely, all three reactors tripped automatically and have been out of service since. The reactors were not damaged, and TVA has used the outage to conduct inspections and maintenance work.A TVA spokesman told the Huntsville, Ala., Times that four of nine major transmission lines leading from the plant have been repaired. In its current state, the transmission system can handle the generation from two reactors, he said, and unit 2 may come online in the next week.Unit 1 at the Athens, Ala., plant near Huntsville uses a General Electric Type 4 boiling water reactor with Mark I containment, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. At full power, it generates 1065 megawatts.
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