Environmentalists opposed to restarting old TVA reactor

Environmentalists opposed to restarting old TVA reactor

By Bill Poovey
The Associated Press

CHATTANOOGA — The Tennessee Valley Authority could vote today to restart a mothballed nuclear reactor in north Alabama — a decision environmentalists contend would be gambling with safety and ignoring ratepayers.

TVA watchdog Steven Smith, director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said the board has signaled that it will approve reactivating TVA's oldest nuclear power generator, the Unit 1 reactor at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant near Athens, Ala.

"No other utility could get away with doing this — making a $1.8 billion decision based on staff recommendation," he said. "This is a huge, huge gamble. This is a very risky proposition for ratepayers."

TVA spokesman Gil Francis declined to speculate Wednesday on what the board — Chairman Glenn McCullough and directors Skila Harris and Bill Baxter — might decide at today's meeting in Hunstville, Ala.

Francis said the utility has spent months evaluating the restart. Baxter, the newest board member, has said restarting the reactor looks like a good business decision.

Smith said restarting a 29-year-old reactor after a 17-year shut-down is "very contrary" to what other electricity providers are doing to boost generating capacity, such as developing natural gas-fired plants.

"There is nobody who is restarting old nuclear reactors that are of 1960s vintage and haven't started in 17 years," Smith said. "They are taking this nuclear reactor and asking it to go beyond its life. So they are going to run it longer than it was designed to run. They are trying to get more power out of it than it was designed to do."

Reactors provide about one-third of the power generated by TVA, while coal is the fuel source for about two-thirds. TVA recently stopped work on an unfinished natural gas-powered plant at Arnold Air Force Base in Tullahoma after investing nearly $150 million.

TVA's nuclear staff in March recommended restarting the reactor, which as projected would power about 650,000 "typical valley homes."

The projected $1.8 billion price tag poses a challenge for the nation's largest public utility, which is under pressure to reduce a $25 billion debt that can't exceed $30 billion.

Smith said TVA has told Congress that there would be a private partner in any future nuclear power ventures.

"The last time they increased rates they said were going to use money to pay down the debt by 50 percent, from $27 billion to $14 billion. ... Right around $2 billion has been reduced. Now they are just going to take all the money and commit it to go toward finishing this nuclear reactor," Smith said.

Smith said a decision to restart the reactor also would backtrack on previous TVA policy to pursue alternatives to nuclear power, including the popular Green Power Switch where customers pay higher rates to support power from renewable sources like solar and wind.

Carol Womacks of Scottsboro, Ala., a spokeswoman for the environmental group Citizens of Jackson County, said her group worries about the economics and safety.

"As a ratepayer I don't think the money should be put in a plant that is that old," she said. "We are just pushing the margin, pushing machinery that is not meant to do what they want it to.

"There has been a fair amount of population growth in Huntsville and the Muscle Shoals area," Smith said. "I think they need to be looking at updating evacuation routes."

TVA voluntarily shut down the Unit 1 reactor in March 1985 because of safety concerns. Units 2 and 3 at Browns Ferry also stopped in 1985 but were restarted in 1991 and 1995 after major renovations.

TVA provides electricity to about 8.3 million people in Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, Alabama and Mississippi.