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TVA reactor restart
Here's a little bit of good news.
Bill Lipton
liptonw@dteenergy.com
TVA OKs Restarting Ala. Reactor
Fri May 17, 5:32 AM ET
By BILL POOVEY, Associated Press Writer
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) - The Tennessee Valley Authority board has
voted to restart a mothballed Alabama nuclear reactor that is
projected to
power about 650,000 homes in the South.
The three-member board decided to go ahead with the project Thursday
despite objections from environmentalists and questions about how to
pay the projected $1.8 billion cost. The board approved the restart
without a funding plan.
The 29-year-old reactor at the Browns Ferry nuclear plant was shut
down in 1985 because of safety
concerns, but the TVA recently began discussing the possibility of
bringing it back to boost economic
development and power capacity.
Environmental activists warned the board that old equipment increases
safety risks, particularly for states
east and downwind if there is an accident or terrorist attack at the
plant. They pleaded with the board to
allow additional public participation before a vote.
"Many of the people advising are pro-nuclear," said John Noel, a
member of the Southern Alliance for
Clean Energy and the Tennessee Environmental Council. He told board
members they were making
"perhaps a life and death decision."
The board followed the recommendation of TVA employees and said the
Environmental Protection
Agency (news - web sites) agreed that restarting the idle reactor was
a better option than building a new
power-producing plant.
Board member Skila Harris disagreed with opponents who said there was
too little public input in the
decision, saying TVA does not operate "in a vacuum or in secrecy."
"I felt very confident about my own personal due diligence," she said.
"I did not limit myself to just
listening to people from TVA."
TVA executives told the board the utility could pay for the restart,
possibly from existing revenues, while
continuing to reduce its $25 billion debt. Spokesman John Moulton said
specifics were expected within the
next few months.
Board Chairman Glenn McCullough said TVA would immediately begin a
search for private funding. He
declined to elaborate.
"I think we are going to have some viable options," board member Bill
Baxter said.
Construction is expected to begin in about one year, and the reactor
is set to restart in May 2007. TVA
employees said the work would mostly involve replacing pipes and
cable.
The agency also will construct a new, larger cooling tower, the sixth
at the Athens, Ala., plant.
TVA provides electricity to about 8.3 million people in Tennessee,
Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina,
Virginia, Alabama and Mississippi.
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