State Environmental Leader Calls Senator's Support for Nuclear Power Reckless

February 25, 2004
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Stephen Smith, (865) 567-7429

State Environmental Leader Calls

Senator's Support for Nuclear Power Reckless

Voluntary Restart of Old Reactor Causing Layoffs at TVA

KNOXVILLE, Tenn.—Senator Lamar Alexander's public embrace of nuclear power drew a quick response from state environmental leader and long time TVA watchdog group Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

"Senator Alexander's reckless support for nuclear power completely ignores two important historical lessons: first, the massive consumer debt generated by the nuclear power industry which is still weighing down Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA); and second, the homeland security issues of September 11, 2001," said Dr. Stephen Smith, Executive Director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

"As the Chair of the Senate Energy Subcommittee, Alexander should be more responsible in his approach to the issues of nuclear power by seeking a balanced review of the issues. While we share the Senator's concern for clean air, nuclear power creates a host of new economic, environmental and security issues that must be addressed. It's not the answer to clean air."

Smith pointed out that Alexander's statement in support of the TVA restart of the troubled Browns Ferry Unit 1 was "misleading and inaccurate". In a statement released February 24, 2004, Senator Alexander stated, "Completion of Browns Ferry will represent the first new nuclear capacity in the United States to be added in 20 years."

This statement is incorrect. Browns Ferry is not new. The troubled reactor began operation in August 1974. In 1976 TVA employees lost control of the Brown Ferry Unit 1 reactor after an employee caught the wires below the control room on fire with a candle while looking for an air leak. It took workers several hours to regain control of the reactor. Before the 1979 Three Mile Island accident, the 1976 Browns Ferry incident was viewed as the closest nuclear meltdown scenario in U.S. history. TVA idled the reactor in the mid 1980s because of safety concerns.

There is nothing new about Browns Ferry Unit 1 design. It is a General Electric boiling water reactor. Boiling water reactors where supplanted by pressure water reactors in the 1970s as the nuclear industry's reactor of choice.

It is also inaccurate to say there has been no new nuclear capacity brought online in the past 20 years. TVA started the troubled Watts Bar Unit 1 nuclear reactor in 1996, which was the last "new" nuclear capacity to come online in the United States. It took TVA 23 years and more than $7 billion dollars to start up Watts Bar Unit 1. This reactor was 18 years behind schedule and more than $6 billion dollars over budget.

"TVA's continued infatuation with nuclear power has saddled TVA ratepayers with the largest utility debt in the country," continued Smith. "More than 75 percent of TVA's $24 billion debt is directly attributable to its blind faith in nuclear power. Today, TVA workers face layoffs because of the restart of Browns Ferry. TVA's $2 billion dollar restart of Browns Ferry is a voluntary action by the TVA Board of Directors which has already approved a rate increase for ratepayers and now will drive TVA employees to the unemployment lines."

Smith adds, "The TVA Board blames the layoffs in part on pending deregulation, but there is, in fact, no deregulation legislation on the horizon. It is more accurate to state that the layoffs and rate increases are a result of the voluntary restart of Browns Ferry Unit 1."

Smith explained that TVA's recent rate increase and upcoming layoffs are driven by tight cash flow problems cause by the agency's massive debt service money spent on clean up of old coal fired plants as required by law and the voluntary restart of Browns Ferry Unit 1. Not spending the money of Browns Ferry would have delayed both the rate increase and the proposed layoffs.

"It is irresponsible for Senator Alexander to repeat the mistakes of the past and blindly support nuclear power. Rate increases and unemployment is not why Tennesseans elected Lamar Alexander. We call on the Senator to seek a balanced hearing which looks at all the facts, pro and con, associated with nuclear power," said Smith.