TVA's new nuclear deals 

By 2020 the government utility will generate 50% of its power from nuclear reactors

The fullest expression of the nuclear renaissance to date has been in 18 license applications to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) mostly by commercial utilities. In the middle of the pile, the  Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is developing an interesting track record not only in bringing moth balled reactors back to life, but also planning new ones. A nuclear engineer looking for a chance to work on the "big iron" would do well to consider TVA as a place to work.

Two TVA projects define the government utility's future building nuclear power plants instead of using its historical fossil fuel of choice – coal. They are the second Watts Bar plant and the possible construction of at least one new nuclear reactor at the Bellefonte site. TVA also has the enviable record of financial success with its re-start of the Browns Ferry unit.

TVA is finding that even in a period of flat or declining electricity consumption, that building new nuclear energy powered generating capacity is more cost effective than new coal or gas fired plants. Right now TVA gets 60% of its power from coal-fired plants, 30% from nuclear, and the rest from hydro and gas. By 2020 the utility wants 50% of its power coming from nuclear reactors. The difference will be a reduction in coal-fired plants and the parallel reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Finishing Watts Bar

TVA board voted in August 2007 to finish a second reactor at its Watts Bar Nuclear Plant near Spring City, TN, by 2012 at a projected cost of $2.5 billion. TVA projects that the Watts Bar unit will generate power for less than the continued costs of buying power from other generators or building new coal-or-gas-fired plants. The reactor project was started in the 1980s, but halted in 1988 due to sputtering demand for electricity.

The board said the decision at Watts Bar was based on a review of future power needs, cost and schedule issues, environmental impact, and financial risk issues. The reactor is expected to be complete and in revenue service by 2012. This is a considerably faster path to making electricity with a reactor than building one from scratch.

In April 2009 TVA said it is on track to finish the project on time and within budget. The project is about one-quarter complete.  It will require 2,300 construction workers and employ a permanent staff of 250 people. 

Browns Ferry complete

Another sign of progress is the completion and restart of the Browns Ferry reactor in May 2007. The 1,500 MW unit helped the utility save an estimated $800 million.

The $1.8 billion restart of Browns Ferry Unit 1, originally forecast to pay for itself within eight years, will now end up paying for itself in 2 1/2 years because of the unexpected jump in the costs for power generation for gas for peak power.

Destiny at Bellefonte

TVA has one more reactor project in the planning stage at the Bellefonte site. There the utility has multiple choices, and won't make up its mind which way to proceed for some time. At issue is the question of whether to complete two partially built reactors or build one or two entirely new units. The decision is still in the planning stage with lots of design and cost data to be crunched before the utility has an answer.

TVA expects to spend $25 million before it makes up its mind. However, when you compare it to the cost of two new reactors, at a price tag of $4.5-6 billion each, that's a lot of leverage. To put it in perspective, it is the same as spending $125 to decide which $30,000 car you plan to buy.

Another issue facing TVA at Bellefonte is that the Westinghouse AP1000 reactor design is revising its certification with the NRC. However, TVA officials say they expect that process to be completed in time to include it in their decision about Bellefonte. A decision on what to build at Bellefonte is expected by 2012 at the latest.

TVA has already made one decision about Bellefonte, and that is it will build just one reactor there. The original plans were for two units. However, the utility now expects demand for electricity, slowing down due to the recession, to grow at lower levels over the long term.

Two other reasons play in the mix, and one of them is the Kingston, TN, coal ash spill, which will cost over $1 billion to clean up. Another financial issue is that TVA has a debt ceiling, set by Congress, of $30 billion and it is bumping up against it at $25 billion.

Even so, eventually TVA is likely to build at Bellefonte. Whether it completes one of the partially built reactors or starts over with a new unit is a decision that lives in the future. A nuclear engineer who wants to work on the future of the industry at TVA would do well to go there.

Comments