Utility Board Votes to Restart a Nuclear Reactor in Alabama That Has Been Idle Since 1985

Utility Board Votes to Restart a Nuclear Reactor in Alabama That Has Been Idle Since 1985

By DAVID FIRESTONE

ATLANTA, May 16 — The board of
the Tennessee Valley Authority vot-
ed today to spend $1.7 billion to re-
start a troubled nuclear reactor at its
Browns Ferry plant in northern Ala-
bama, a decision that could produce
the first substantial increase in the
nation's nuclear-generating capacity
in more than a decade.

The three reactors at Browns Fer-
ry, on the Tennessee River near Ath-
ens, Ala, were shut down in 1985
after engineers discovered that they
did not precisely match their blue-
prints. Even before then, the plant
had a history of operating problems
caused by a fire in 1975. After cor-
rections were made, the authority
restarted the second and third reac-
tor units in 1991 and 1996.

The first reactor was left idle be-
cause its capacity was not needed,
but board members said today that
with electricity demand growing,
they needed a generator that would
not add to the region's air quality
problems.

"We must balance the responsibil-
ity to provide power to meet future
needs with our objectives of protect-
ing the environment and continuing
the trend of debt reduction," said
Skila Harris, one of the authority's
three board members, who was an
assistant to former Vice President
Al Gore. "Restarting Unit I will pro-
vide needed generating capacity
without increasing air emissions."

The unanimous vote came over the
objections of several area residents,
who said the plant was insufficiently
protected against a terrorist attack,
and from environmental groups ex-
pressing concern about the reactor's
design.

"They're taking an old nuclear re-
actor that has not operated for 17
years, and they're going to run it
longer and harder than it was de-
signed for," said Stephen Smith, ex-
ecutive director of the Southern Alli-
ance for Clean Energy, based in
Knoxville, Tenn. "It originally had a
design life of 40 years, which they
want to extend for 20 years, and they
want to force it to produce 1,300
megawatts when it was designed for
1,000. It's a prescription for a serious
problem."

There has been no new construc-
tion of a nuclear plant since the
Three Mile Island accident in 1979;
the last nuclear plant to begin opera-
tion was the Tennessee Valley Au-
thority's Watts Bar reactor in east-
ern Tennessee, which began full op-
eration in 1996. The Bush administra-
tion, however, has expressed re-
newed interest in pursuing the tech-
nology, as have some large utilities.

When the Browns Ferry plant was
completed in 1977, it was the largest
nuclear power plant in the world, the
first to generate more than a billion
watts of electricity. It uses boiling-
water reactors, an older technology
than the pressurized-water reactors
that are in newer nuclear plants. The
T.V.A. is not planning to change the
fundamental design of the plant,
leading some critics to suggest that
it is spending too much money on
antiquated technology.

"For the same amount of money,
they could build a brand-new reactor
that's safer and has a longer life,"
said David Lochbaum, a nuclear-
safety engineer for the Union of Con-
cerned Scientists, a group often op-
posed to nuclear-plant expansion.

"It's like trying to dust off an eight-
track tape player rather than buying
a DVD system — they're not getting
good value for their money."

No nuclear plant has ever been
restarted after such a long period in
mothballs, Mr. Lochbaum added.

Authority officials disagreed with
that analysis. Gil Francis, a T.V.A.
spokesman, said the authority had
looked at every option available for
meeting power demands by 2010 and
concluded that it was less expensive
and cleaner to restart the reactor
than to build one, or to add to the
authority's battery of coal, gas and
hydroelectric plants.

"Every option had its pros and
cons," Mr. Francis said. "Coal plants
have emission issues and high capi-
tal costs; gas-fired plants have the
volatility in the price of fuel. But
considering the economies of scale
of having the existing reactors nearby,
we think restarting this reactor will
return its investment in eight years
of operation."

The upgraded plant, which would
be ready for operation by 2006, would
add the latest technology to the reac-
tor, Mr. Francis said. An operating
license from the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission would be required be-
fore the reactor could be restarted.
No other approval is needed for the
authority to get the plant ready to
reopen. T.V.A. officials said they
hoped to pay for the work from the
annual revenues of the authority's
system.

Most elected officials in the region
support the T.V.A.'s action, which
would create 2,400 jobs, and several
union leaders gave their enthusiastic
approval to the plan at today's hear-
ing. Representative Zach Wamp, a
Republican who represents the Chat-
tanooga area, said it was hypocriti-
cal of environmental groups to op-
pose a generating technology that
does not add to air pollution.

"There's a great debate in the
Tennessee Valley over the degraded
air quality in the Smokies and
around the valley, and how much the
T.V.A. plants contribute to it," Mr.
Wamp said. "Well, clearly if you
want cleaner air, the development
of more nuclear reactors is the way to
go, and Browns Ferry 1 is the logical
place to start. You can't have it both
ways."

Environmental leaders, however,
said the problem of nuclear waste
disposal had still not been resolved
and suggested that the authority
"would be better off spending the $1.7
billion cleaning up the fossil-fuel
plants that are now operating."

The T.V.A. is the nation's largest
public producer of electricity, serv-
ing about 8.3 million people in seven
states. About two-thirds of its power
comes from 11 fossil-fuel plants,
while most of the rest comes from
three nuclear plants and 29 hydro-
electric dams.