Bush blesses Browns Ferry 1 restart
President George W. Bush was in Decatur, Ala., this spring to celebrate the restart of Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA's) Browns Ferry 1 nuclear power plant. It had been mothballed for 22 years.
Bush (Figure 5) toured the refurbished (at a cost of $1.8 billion) 1,200-MW GE boiling water reactor, which TVA closed in 1985 along with two other Browns Ferry units. The systemwide nuclear shutdown was driven in part by investigations by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-Mich.). TVA delayed bringing Browns Ferry 1 back on-line sooner because, at 34, it is the oldest nuke on its system. Other, younger nuclear units at Browns Ferry and Sequoyah had been restarted earlier.
5. Bush at Browns Ferry. President George W. Bush, right, in the control room of TVA's Browns Ferry 1 nuclear unit. It reentered service this spring better than new after spending 25 years in mothballs and getting a $1.8-billion, five-year refurbishment. Courtesy: U.S. Department of Energy
Soon after Browns Ferry 1 went on-line in 1973, TVA broke ground on the 1,167-MW Watts Bar 1 pressurized water reactor, which entered commercial operation in 1996. Watts Bar was the last new nuclear plant to be commissioned in the U.S. TVA is now considering resuming construction on Watts Bar 2.
The Browns Ferry 1 restart program began in 2002. Over the past five years, the original unit—state-of-the-art in 1973 but now considered primitive—was essentially rebuilt as a modern unit that barely resembles its predecessor.
Bush used his visit to Alabama to push for reprocessing spent nuclear fuel, an issue largely tangential to the plant's restart. "We ought to do something about reprocessing," he said. "We ought to bring new technologies to bear to help us all deal with spent fuel." The president then boosted his "global nuclear energy partnership" or GNEP program, which so far has elicited languorous, bipartisan yawns in Congress.
The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), as the lobbying group for the nuclear power business, predictably ate up Bush's appearance at Browns Ferry. Skip Bowman, NEI CEO, said Bush's visit to Alabama "is a fitting tribute to the thousands of men and women whose hard word and dedication over the past five years made refurbishment of Browns Ferry 1 a reality."
Bush also took the opportunity to push his political agenda on energy and slam the energy bill advancing in the Senate, which now is controlled by Democrats. "The current plan being debated in the Senate," he said, "falls far short of the ambitious goal I laid out." He described his goal as "realistic" and called on Congress to "get [my bill] to my desk so we can all say we've done a good job of representing the people."
But the Bush bill is controversial, including a limited version that recently passed the Senate. Both Republicans and Democrats have criticized it as nibbling at the edges of energy policy.
Shearon Harris looks to live on
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) last month rejected a petition by locals opposed to extending the operating license of Progress Energy's 900-MW Shearon Harris nuclear power plant (Figure 6) for another 20 years.
6. Opponents of Shearon Harris defeated. The NRC has rejected locals' claims that extending the license of Progress Energy's 900-MW Shearon Harris pressurized-water reactor for 20 years is not in the public interest. Courtesy: Progress Energy
The single-unit pressurized-water plant in New Hill, N.C., began operating in 1987 under a 20-year license. The Progress Energy subsidiary Carolina Power & Light has applied for a 20-year extension of the license, in line with NRC rules.
Last April, the NRC set a schedule for reviewing the license renewal application that included public hearings in July run by the independent Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB). According to press accounts, those hearings generated little opposition to the relicensing. If opponents of the license extension fail to persuade the ASLB, they can appeal its decision in federal court.
This June, the NRC dismissed claims by critics dating back to 1989 that the plant is particularly vulnerable to fire. They wanted Progress, which is based in Raleigh, N.C., to be fined $130,000 or have its nuclear operating license revoked. The NRC disagreed, and the opponents appealed to the ASLB. At press time, the ASLB had not issued an opinion.
The NRC has yet to rule on the license renewal, but the betting among nuclear power insiders is that Progress will get it because extensions have become almost automatic at the NRC.
On a related issue, workers at Shearon Harris and two other Progress Energy nuclear plants—Brunswick, near Southport, N.C., and Robinson, near Hartsville, S.C.—resoundingly rejected representation by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). According to press accounts, nonmanagement employees at the three plants voted 499-157 against joining the union.
The IBEW, which says it represents nonmanagement workers at about 75% of the nation's nuclear plants, mounted a major organizing drive, starting at the Brunswick plant, in 2006. The campaign spread to Harris and Robinson this year. The union petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for a vote at the end of May, apparently confident that it would win.
Unions aren't particularly popular in the Carolinas. The Raleigh News and Observer noted at the end of June that "Progress Energy hasn't had a unionized employee on its payroll in the Carolinas in nearly three decades."
In a press release, Bill Johnson, chief operating officer of Progress Energy, said, "I am more confident than ever in the people and the future of Progress Energy." According to the Raleigh newspaper, North Carolina and South Carolina have the lowest rates (3.3%) of union membership in the country. Under federal law, the IBEW cannot begin another organizing drive at the three plants for one year.
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