Unfinished business
Congratulations to TVA and its contractors for "recommissioning" the 1,064-MW Browns Ferry Unit 1 in Athens, Alabama. The unit was restarted in late May and reached full power on June 8. "All three units at Browns Ferry are essentially alike now," said TVA's acting chief nuclear officer, Preston Swafford. "We have new or refurbished equipment that is operated in the same manner on all three units." Unit 1 was shut down in 1985 for safety reasons.
The cost of refurbishing Unit 1 and modernizing the overall plant stretched TVA's resources. But the investment will pay dividends: The $1.8 billion (about $1,700/kW) spent is expected to be recouped in just five years.
Moving quickly following the reopening of Browns Ferry 1, TVA's board approved the completion of a second unit at its Watts Bar Nuclear Plant on August 1. The five-year project will give TVA another 1,180 MW for an estimated $2.49 billion ($2,100/kW).
Watts Bar Unit 1 was the last nuclear plant to be commissioned in the U.S., in 1996. TVA suspended construction on Unit 2 in 1988. Unit 1 ultimately took $6.9 billion and nearly 25 years to complete. TVA has definitely has learned from its early mistakes, and it shows with the success of Browns Ferry Unit 1.
“The excellent operating record of Watts Bar 1 convinces us that the design of the proposed second unit is sound,” said TVA president and CEO Tom Kilgore. “In building it, we expect to apply all of the lessons we learned restarting Browns Ferry 1.”
Bored with statistics
The nine nuclear plants mentioned above have a total capacity of 11 GW, a bit more than the 9 GW of new capacity assumed by the EIA estimate for 2030. All have an estimated in-service date of 2015. I think it's reasonable to conclude that more plants will be built in the years after 2015, if and when the latest nuclear designs have matured.
It takes time for any industry as moribund as U.S. nuclear power to rebuild lost capability and infrastructure. Just as a couch potato can't hop out of his recliner and run a marathon without long and hard preparation, America's nuclear utilities, contractors, and suppliers are slowly building the muscle and dedication needed to go the distance.
—Dr. Robert Peltier, PE Editor-in-Chief
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