TVA reactor restart

[William V Lipton <liptonw@DTEENERGY.COM>]

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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