TVA urges Watts Bar protesters to be peaceful

TVA urges Watts Bar protesters to be peaceful
By Jerry Dean
Staff writer

Anti-nuclear protesters converged Friday to mark the 10th anniversary of the former Soviet Union's Chernobyl nuclear disaster and to demonstrate against TVA's Watts Bar Nuclear Plant near Spring City.

TVA Police Director Bob Carter urged the protesters to conduct themselves peacefully.

"Organizers inform us that some individuals will engage in acts of civil disobedience (to get) arrested," Carter said. "We hope they will reconsider. We very much want to avoid any arrests."

In July 1994, Dayton and Spring City police and Rhea County sheriff's deputies charged 52 protesters with criminal trespass after a demonstration by some 200 people blocked plant access. Some chained themselves to fences. Others felled trees or flattened car tires to block Highway 68 access.

Others painted graffiti on visitor center walls and did another $8,000 in damages to seven buildings and a dam. TVA said workers, caught in a seven-mile-long traffic jam, amassed $400,000 in lost work time.

At past protests at Watts Bar, the last nuclear power plant of its generation to be licensed in the United States, local authorities made arrests. That may change now that TVA police are federally commissioned.

Carter said TVA has worked with the Snail Darter Alliance to coordinate protest logistics. Part of a public access area near Watts Bar Dam will be available to protesters today and Sunday.

Participants, Carter said, have been asked to stay within a designated area near areas open for public recreational use.

Carter said the group "may not conduct activities that result in damage or destruction of TVA property (nor) willfully restrict access to roads or conduct activities capable of producing injury or provoking violence."

The Nuclear Regulatory Agency granted TVA a full-power operating license for Watts Bar on Feb. 7. Since Feb. 17, TVA has produced electricity there, but the plant remains in "power ascension" testing, designed to verify plant reliability.

Sevier's Larry Waters to run for Quillen seat
By Michael Silence
Staff writer

SEVIERVILLE — Larry Waters, Sevier County's executive for 18 years, on Friday announced his GOP bid for the 1st Congressional District seat being vacated by retiring Rep. James H. "Jimmy" Quillen, R-Kingsport.

Waters, 43, joins others who've already said they are running in the Republican primary, including state Rep. Richard Venable, R-Kingsport; state Sen. Jim Holcomb, R-Bristol; Johnson City businessman David Davis and District Attorney General Al Schmutzer Jr. of Sevierville.

The filing deadline to run for Congress is noon May 16. The 1st District takes in 11 counties and a portion of East Knox County. It runs from Gatlinburg in Sevier County to Mountaintop.