[ RadSafe ] Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant

[Maury]

Essential problems are transmission lines, not a nuclear reactor problem.
Best,
Maury&Dog
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No indication when TVA will add more local power, Browns Ferry plant 
will remain offline
Published: Monday, May 02, 2011, 5:29 PM     Updated: Monday, May 02, 
2011, 5:36 PM
Brian Lawson, The Huntsville Times By Brian Lawson, The Huntsville Times


HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- About half of Huntsville Utilities customers have 
electricity again but TVA halted any additional release of power Monday 
afternoon as it continues to work on stabilizing its transmission system.

For many residents the lights came on late Sunday night and the numbers 
grew rapidly Monday morning, climbing from 30 percent to 50 percent of 
customers served before noon.

Huntsville Utilities said about 80,000 customers have power.

But the storms last week have forced TVA to reconfigure how it transmits 
electricity. The utility's decision Monday to temporarily halt any 
further increases of power was based on uncertainty about the effects of 
adding large industrial customers back to the system, TVA spokesman 
Michael Bradley said.

"Their (industrial customers) processes require large amounts of 
electricity and it can vary a lot from hour to hour, which can add to 
system's instability," Bradley said. "So some connections can be made to 
sustain lower loads. We've been focused on residential and critical loads."


Huntsville UtilitiesHuntsville Utilities lineman. (The Huntsville Times)

The essentially temporary system TVA has built has no back-up at this 
point, so they are moving cautiously as they add customers back on-line. 
Officials said it will be August before the system is fully restored.

TVA said Monday it had restored all but eight of the 128 connection 
points to local power companies that were damaged last week. The utility 
estimated about 152,000 homes and businesses still were without electric 
service. About half of the electricity the utility provides in North 
Alabama has been restored, TVA said.

Bill Pippin, president of Huntsville Utilities, also urged the public to 
be mindful about conserving electricity. He stressed keeping air 
conditioner thermostats between 78 and 80 degrees during peak hours and 
"helping your neighbors" by being careful about power consumption.

Huntsville Utilities spokesman Bill Yell said the utility's water 
situation is in "pretty good shape," and better than it was over the 
weekend when customers in some higher-elevation areas had little or no 
water and limited water pressure.

Yell also addressed customer questions about power bills that are due.

"If your bill was due during the time we were closed last week because 
of the storm, contact us and we will work with you," Yell said.

TVA is also continuing to try and restore seven major transmission lines 
to its Browns Ferry nuclear plant near Athens. All three of the plant's 
reactors went into an automatic, unplanned shutdown Wednesday afternoon 
after power to the plant was knocked off-line. Monday afternoon TVA was 
completing the process of moving from using diesel generators to operate 
the plant's cooling and other systems, while in shutdown mode. Two 
smaller transmission lines are now able to provide outside power to the 
plant. The diesel generators will revert to a backup role.

TVA spokesman Dan Golden said Browns Ferry will not return to operation 
for a number of days if not weeks. Golden said once permanent power is 
returned to the plant, TVA will return the reactors to service, one at a 
time.