Board of Cash-Strapped TVA Approves Extra $2 Billion for Nuclear Plant

The board of the Tennessee Valley Authority spent Thursday’s meeting hearing about low power demand and tight finances. Then they voted unanimously to spend an additional $2 billion completing a nuclear reactor in Spring City.

A former chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority says the federal utility has had a “love affair” with nuclear power that should end. David Freeman addressed the board at its meeting Thursday morning.

For all the talk of a nuclear renaissance in the U.S., only one reactor is technically “under construction” right now. Watts Bar has a nearly 40 year history. And the Tennessee Valley Authority’s effort to complete a second reactor on site isn’t going well.

The state budget is back on track after being put on hold for three hours Wednesday while House Republicans and Democrats negotiated out some “local projects–” sometimes called “pork barrel projects-” that the Senate had slipped in.

Cigarettes from roll-your-own tobacco shops could soon be taxed at a higher rate under a bill approved yesterday by the state Senate. Roll-your-own shops sell raw tobacco, which is taxed at a lower rate, and then let customers make their cigarettes using a machine in the store.

Thousands of Tennessee parents may be affected by a proposal to require their children to turn five a month earlier in order to start kindergarten. But the measure also includes a “maturity” test that would allow four-year-olds to enroll.

State senators signed off today on a bill to punish someone who brings a lawsuit that gets dismissed as groundless. The proposal would force the loser to pay the other side’s attorney’s fees and court costs, up to $10 thousand.

The board of the Tennessee Valley Authority will be asked Thursday morning to approve a near-doubling of the budget to complete a second nuclear reactor at Watts Bar. TVA has already spent the $2.5 billion originally projected to finish the East Tennessee power plant.

In response to the historic flooding in Nashville two years ago, Metro Government has unveiled an online mapping tool to help residents find their way around during a disaster. City officials believe it could be a national model.