TVA CEO Tom Kilgore answers questions from reporters in front of Watts Bar Nuclear Plant. (photo by Stephen Jerkins)

Completing a nuclear reactor south of Crossville will cost TVA as much as $2 billion more than original estimates and take three years longer. On Thursday TVA executives gave a sort of pep talk to workers finishing Watts Bar Unit 2.

Work to revive the mothballed reactor began in 2007. TVA had just restarted another nuclear unit in Alabama, and the utility should have known better than to set such an aggressive timeline, says vice president for nuclear construction Mike Skaggs.

“Some of the lessons learned that we knew about but didn’t apply to Watts Bar 2 was we started construction too early.”

Only one of the twin cooling towers at Watts Bar has been used since unit 1 came online in 1996. (photo by Stephen Jerkins)

The reactor was slated for completion this year, requiring near-round-the-clock work and more than 3,000 people on site at one time. The date has now been pushed out to the end of 2015.

TVA CEO Tom Kilgore apologized to workers gathered in a tent outside the plant.

“We didn’t do a good job at leading, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to quit.”

Kilgore says he will ask the TVA board to approve up to $4.5 billion for the project. While nearly double the original projected cost, Kilgore says the plant will still be “cost effective.”

Fukushima Adds to Costs

Skaggs says part of the additional cost comes from new standards following the nuclear disaster in Japan last year.

“There’s approximately $300 million for the Fukushima actions that we need to take that we’re still trying to define what those are going to be.”

The new total of $4.5 billion has been vetted by two outside companies, Kilgore says. At the plant he told workers it’s important to “finish the job well” and under budget, adding that he doesn’t want to “miss it twice.”