TVA may start up 3 reactors

TVA may
start up
3 reactors
Bush pushing
nuclear power
for energy mix

By ANNE PAINE
and LARRY BIVINS
Staff Writers

TVA is considering starting up three nuclear reactors that have been out of service or never completed as the agency tries to plot how the region's future energy needs can be met.

President Bush said yesterday that the Tennessee Valley Authority could help move the nation toward using more nuclear power to create electricity.

"We've got to incorporate nuclear energy into our mix," Bush said, "and TVA can play a useful role for that." Bush made his comments yesterday in Washington, D.C. to a small group of reporters while talking about the first six months of his administration.

TVA's renewed interest in its long-mothballed nuclear building program is not in reaction to Bush's agenda, according to John Moulton, a TVA spokesman. Rather, it's a response to fluctuating natural gas prices, increasing costs to clean up pollution from coal plants and the energy woes that have gripped California.

"The board is just saying take a look at it," Moulton said of the studies.

One of the reactors under scrutiny is at Brown's Ferry, near Athens, Ala., which was shut down with other TVA reactors about 1985 because of safety concerns. This unit had never been restarted, though two other reactors at Brown's Ferry are in operation.

The two other reactor units that could be brought on line are at the Bellefonte plant near Hollywood, Ala., which has never opened. One unit is about 80% complete.

While the studies include comparisons with other power sources, dealing with nuclear waste is not at issue.

"Nuclear waste is certainly the main concern, but we have confidence that Congress is going to eventually have a permanent storage solution for spent fuel," Moulton said. He added the waste is "one of the most closely monitored power plant wastes in the world."

The leader of a TVA watchdog group yesterday called any move toward more nuclear power "a prescription for financial disaster."

TVA's aggressive nuclear building program in the past put the agency deep in debt, to the tune of about $25 billion at this point, said Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy in Knoxville.

"What concerns me so much about the Bush administration pushing TVA to the forefront to reignite the nuclear power program in this country is that it's the same kind of thinking that got us in the situation we're in today," he said.

He and other groups have called for more energy conservation measures to curb use.

"I'm not convinced we need this added supply at all," Smith said. "We continue to consume more electric power per capita than any other part of the country."

The Bush administration touts nuclear power as an environmentally sound option to air-polluting coal plants.

TVA produces electricity for most of Tennessee, including Nashville Electric Service, and parts of six other states. The agency has the capacity to provide 51% of electricity from coal, 19% from nuclear, 19% from hydroelectric dams and 11% from natural gas. Drought conditions since 1998 have reduced the hydroelectric contribution to 6%, with nuclear providing 31%.

Bush also said yesterday that he would like to see TVA run more like a business. He said that's why he named former Tennessee Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bill Baxter to the TVA Board and chose Tupelo, Miss., Mayor Glenn McCullough to be its chairman.

"It's a business," Bush said. "It's not a government entity. It's couched as a government entity, but it's a business. It needs to be competitive. It needs to bring energy at reasonable prices to the people, but it's got to be run like a business."