TVA Board to Vote on New Nuke Application

The 9-member board of the Tennessee Valley Authority meets tomorrow and nuclear power will top the agenda. Directors of the public utility are expected to approve the first application for a new nuclear reactor in more than 30 years.

The federal utility is leading the charge to build a reactor at a site called ‘Bellefonte’ [BELL-eh-font] in north Alabama. A consortium of energy companies is helping with development and site plans. The U.S. Department of Energy has agreed to pay half the application costs, which could range from 50 to 200-million dollars. The reactors themselves cost an estimated 6-to-7 billion dollars to build.

TVA spokesman Gil Francis says the application represents the agency’s long-range planning for power demand in the region, which continues to set records each year.

“Look around Nashville. You got any shopping centers going up? Got any new schools or hospitals? Any new subdivisions? That’s where the demand is coming from. So even with conservation, as long as the population is growing and they’re building great, big subdivisions, houses are bigger than ever before. All that wonderful technology runs on electric energy.”

Until now, no energy company has begun the process with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build a new reactor in three decades. In the 1970’s, more than 100 reactor projects – some near completion – were cancelled for safety fears and cost overruns.

Now the race is on for billions in federal subsidies, earmarked for companies that are first to return to nuclear. NRG Energy beat TVA to the very front of that line. The New Jersey-based energy company is expected to file an application for two plants in Texas this week.