Watts Bar Unbarred

CHATTANOOGA FREE PRESS OPINION Sunday, November 19, 1995 B5
Sunday Focus
Watts Bar Unbarred

TVA's Nuclear Program Has Come A Long Way
TVA is the largest producer of electric power in the United States, and continued economic growth in the Tennessee Valley has caused a steady increase in the demand for our product.

TVA is obligated to meet this demand, and bringing Watts Bar Unit I into operation will provide the TVA power system with an additional 1,170 megawatts, or enough electricity to supply approximately 250,000 homes.

Including cost of operation, maintenance, fuel and spent fuel disposal, the power from Watts Bar will cost about 1.7 cents per kilowatt-hour to produce. This is more economical than TVA's other current options, such as power purchases from outside the valley.

In addition, Watts Bar will provide reliable power, thanks to a TVA nuclear workforce which expects and demands excellence in operations.

Do not confuse the past with the present. TVA's nuclear program has come a long way from the days when it was labeled "a troubled nuclear program." Proof of that is in the good operation of our other two nuclear facilities, Browns Ferry and Sequoyah.

Bringing Watts Bar on line turns it into a revenue-producing asset for TVA customers. The TVA board began examining the need for completing TVA's unfinished nuclear plants after TVA Chairman Craven Crowell took office in 1993. The board decided not to finish three units, but after a thorough evaluation concluded that completing Watts Bar I is in the best interest of all TVA customers and valley residents.

The chairman has said, "The only reason TVA would consider delaying Watts Bar I would be a safety concern and none has been identified. Absolutely no one would seriously consider delaying it for financial reasons."

Starting Watts Bar I will not result in a TVA rate increase in 1996. The TVA board has set a goal of keeping rates stable for its Tennessee Valley customers through 1997.

By reducing expenditures and increasing productivity, TVA has been able to go without a rate increase for nine years and is working hard to complete a full decade of stable rates.

In addition to keeping operating costs low, TVA maintains a current fund for decommissioning its nuclear plants, ensuring that future costs are funded.

The TVA board and TVA Nuclear are committed to operating a safe plant. Over the past several years TVA has gone the extra mile in reviewing every aspect of Watts Bar to evaluate and resolve design and construction issues of the past.

The design of all plant safety features has been verified with significant segments being upgraded and retested. It has met all Nuclear Regulatory Commission requirements and TVA's high standards of excellence.

TVA has also addressed employee concerns and put in place one of the best employee concern resolution programs in the industry. Independent surveys show that employees at Watts Bar and throughout TVA Nuclear feel free to raise nuclear safety concerns without fear of reprisal.

Watts Bar received a fuel load and low power license from the NRC on Nov. 10 for Unit I. We have loaded fuel and will perform testing and startup procedures prior to starting up the reactor and producing electricity.

Watts Bar I has been properly built, and we are confident in its safe operation. Employees have been fully trained, and programs and procedures are in place to ensure that the plant runs efficiently and safely, enabling it to go into commercial operation in the spring of 1996.

It makes sense to put this valuable resource into operation.

Oliver D. Kingsley Jr. is the Tennessee Valley Authority's chief nuclear officer.

Starting Plant May Throw Good Money After Bad
You have to admire a group of people that decides to do something and sticks to it no matter what it costs — or do you? After 23 years and over $7 billion, TVA's Watts Bar Unit I has been forced through. TVA officials have applauded the plant's completion. But the cost of Watts Bar Unit I has been and will continue to be too great to justify its operation.

In 1972 when TVA began the Watts Bar nuclear project, we were told it would cost $350 million and be producing power in five years. This did not happen. The total cost of financing both units now exceeds $10 billion. These cost overruns are real money, your money!

In 1985 when TVA certified to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that Watts Bar Unit I was ready for operation, several courageous employees came forward to expose a host of safety problems. Upon investigation, the NRC found thousands of construction flaws. As the investigation spread, TVA "regularly" shut down five operating nuclear stations. TVA has restarted only three of these; the fourth is come on-line this fall.

Congress investigated TVA and the NRC after what appeared to be a "material false statement" came dangerously close to allowing a poorly constructed nuclear power plant to come on-line.

The Justice Department chose not to prosecute several top TVA officials. The employees who brought the concerns have been fired or have relocated. This clearly cost the agency its integrity.

Ten years later we have a plant that has been extensively reworked on paper with only limited revisions to hardware. Some employees still have safety concerns, while others have been chilled by the agency's previous strong-arm tactics.

A functioning quality assistance and quality control program was not in place when the plant was built in the late 1970s, and quality cannot be built in after the fact.

Environmental costs are both direct and indirect. TVA has not been serious about conserving power or promoting energy efficiency because of its need to justify the power to be generated by Watts Bar.

This encouragement of wasteful use of power, as demonstrated by TVA's recent television commercials, will create nuclear waste when the plant runs and will increase air pollution when the plant is down and the coal-fired plants work double time.

TVA should instead invest in helping its customers use energy wisely so we can protect both the environment and our pocketbooks.

The question remains: Can TVA operate Watts Bar at a profit to begin to recover the $10 billion investment, or will TVA continue to throw good money after bad if the plant fails? This is the gamble that starting Watts Bar represents. Just the act of starting the plant will tie our region to the long-term cost of decommissioning, now estimated at between $500 million to $1 billion.

Steve Smith, senior staff at Memphis Light, Gas and Water, TVA's largest customer, recently questioned the "prudence" of starting the facility based on the fact that TVA can buy power cheaper on the market through interchange agreements with other utilities.

How have we gotten into this mess in the first place? Simply because of a lack of accountability. The best way to prevent wasteful spending and bad decision-making is through tight oversight.

Congress unfortunately has failed to fulfill this role. The TVA board of directors is now nothing more than a political payback with positions given to people who are grossly unqualified.

As taxpaying citizens and bill-paying customers, we should demand greater accountability and representation in TVA's decision making or demand that the agency be disbanded.

Taxation without representation is unacceptable.

Steve Smith, executive director of the Knoxville-based Tennessee Valley Energy Reform Coalition, worked with TVA this year as the agency developed its Integrated Resource Plan, a blueprint for the next 25 years.