After Decades Under Construction, Watts Bar Unit 2 Finally Fires Up Its Nuclear Reactor

The country’s newest nuclear reactor is finally splitting atoms like it was designed to do decades ago. The Tennessee Valley Authority says Watts Bar Unit II hit the milestone early Monday morning — 2:16 EDT, to be exact.

For the first time, this reactor has achieved a sustained nuclear fission — a phase known as “initial criticality.” The resulting heat generates the steam used to turn massive turbines and produce enormous amounts of electricity.

Watts Bar Unit II in Spring City, Tennessee — south of Crossville — has been closely watched. That’s because it is the first reactor completed in this century. But Watts Bar’s story also tells the up-and-down saga of nuclear power.

Work began in the 1980s when TVA had big ambitions for nuclear power. Then both reactors were mothballed as the public grew more fearful of a meltdown. Unit I was finished in 1996. There was the revival of unit II in 2007, followed by years-long delays and billions of dollars in cost overruns.

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See TVA’s timeline of Watts Bar construction

TVA says in a statement that power levels will be slowly increased, and soon the reactor will start sending electricity out on the grid and eventually power more than a half-million homes, mostly in Tennessee.