TVA

AREVA NP signed a multimillion-dollar agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to provide fleet-wide refuel equipment upgrades. Under this contract, AREVA NP will upgrade existing refueling platforms, manipulator cranes, fuel transfer systems and used fuel bridge components. This modern equipment will help operators increase efficiency, strengthen performance and reduce time when receiving, moving and […]

NuScale will submit the nation’s first application for design certification of a small modular reactor (SMR) to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Thursday. The Corvallis, Ore.–based company, which is majority owned by the Fluor Corp., has been developing its light-water reactor nuclear technology for more than 15 years. Development of the NuScale power module […]

The Tennessee Valley Authority this week said it will pay a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) proposed $140,000 fine for security violations at its Browns Ferry nuclear station near Athens, Ala. According to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, Steve Bono, Browns Ferry site director, said that the giant regional power agency “accepts full responsibility” for the […]

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) said on November 14 that it has sold the unfinished Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant at auction to a private holding company for $111 million. The two-unit Bellefonte plant sits on approximately 1,600 acres on a peninsula in the Tennessee River near Hollywood, Alabama. TVA began construction in 1974, but it halted the […]

Watts Bar Unit 2 began commercial operation on October 19.

A main bank transformer fire has put a halt to power ascension testing at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s) Watts Bar Unit 2 nuclear plant. The incident occurred at about 9:10 p.m., on August 30, when an electrical fault on the 2B main bank transformer caused the Unit 2 main turbine to trip. The reactor, […]

At 2:45 p.m., Nicholas McClung’s cellphone chirps during a business meeting. He doesn’t bother to look at it; the special chirp says it all. He politely excuses himself from the meeting and rushes to the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s) Advanced Technology for Impoundment Monitoring (ATIM) center in the basement of the company’s Chattanooga headquarters. When […]

Resolution recognizes TVA for providing low-cost electricity, controlling floods, improving river navigation across seven states WASHINGTON, D.C., July 7, 2016 – U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and U.S. Rep. John Duncan Jr. (R-Tenn.) today introduced a resolution praising the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) for its successful construction and management of the “Unified Plan of the […]

The first-ever early site permit (ESP) application for a small modular reactor (SMR) was submitted to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) this May, marking a resurgence for the fledgling nuclear energy technology that has seen a number of setbacks in recent years. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) submitted an ESP application for a potential […]

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) listed costs and time among several reasons for its preferred method to close its coal ash impoundments in place, rather than by removal, but the move has come under fire by environmental groups. The federally owned corporation earlier this month released a final environmental impact statement (EIS) to support its […]

Georgia Power will shut down and stop receiving coal ash at all 29 of its coal ash ponds within the next three years. The announcement on June 13 is the latest in a string of similar moves from coal plant–owning utilities across the nation in response to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) coal ash disposal […]

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) reached another milestone on June 3 when operators at Watts Bar Unit 2—the nation’s newest nuclear power plant and the first added to the fleet in 20 years—synchronized its generator to the power grid, generating electricity from the plant for the first time (Figure 1). 1. Reactor Operator Bill Hahn […]

The Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s) newest nuclear plant, Watts Bar Unit 2, achieved initial criticality on May 23 at 2:16 a.m. Although that may sound ominous to anyone untrained in nuclear terminology, initial criticality simply means that Watts Bar Unit 2 reached a state in which the reactor’s neutron population remained steady from one generation […]

Five nuclear projects—two old, one new, two planned—faced milestones this week as their owners confronted the realities of the U.S. nuclear market. Exelon Seeks Nuclear Support In Illinois, Exelon again warned that the long-challenged Clinton and Quad Cities plants would shut down unless the Illinois legislature passed a bill that would provide economic support for the […]

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) board of directors voted on May 5 to surplus the Bellefonte Nuclear Plant property in northern Alabama so it can be offered for sale and potentially put to better use. The decision comes after months of consideration. On February 16, the TVA notified employees, customers, economic development interests, other stakeholders, […]

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the largest public utility in the US, is installing ABB’s static var compensator (SVC) technology to help ensure system reliability as fossil fuel component of total energy mix declines. SVC’s enhance grid stabilization and at the same time enable a smarter grid. The ongoing quest to deliver power with a lower […]

The disposal of coal ash, a combustion byproduct from coal-fired power plants, was propelled into the national conversation on December 22, 2008, when the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Kingston power plant suffered one of the largest coal ash spills in history. Calls for regulatory action shifted pitch again after the Duke Energy Dan River spill […]

The coal ash spill in December 2008 at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s coal-fired Kingston power plant may have triggered regulatory action, but it wasn’t the first or the most devastating disaster in the coal industry’s history. Coal Ash Spills at Power Facilities [gss name=”example1″ link=”none” ids=”85886,85788,85786,85790,85778,85888,85794,85784,85776″] Other Notable Coal Ash Spills [gss name=”example2″ link=”none” ids=”85772,85780,85782″] —Sonal […]

February 18, 2016, PITTSBURGH—Westinghouse Electric Company has been selected by Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to provide refueling outage and inspection services for the Westinghouse-designed pressurized water reactors at Watts Bar Units 1 and 2 and Sequoyah Units 1 and 2. The award is valued at approximately $75 million and covers the period 2016 through 2021. […]

It’s looking less and less likely that the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will ever finish construction as it was once envisioned for its Bellefonte Nuclear Plant. POWER confirmed through a media spokesperson that the TVA has notified federal authorities that it is withdrawing its application for two combined construction permits and operating licenses for Units […]

For the first time in nearly 20 years, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued an operating license for a new nuclear power plant. The 40-year license was issued to the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) for the long-overdue Watts Bar Unit 2 reactor on Oct. 22. The Watts Bar plant is located about 10 miles […]

Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) inspectors reported that the Tennessee Valley Authority’s performance during a recent assessment conducted at Watts Bar Unit 2 indicated that the plant is ready to startup and conduct power operations. The news was conveyed at a public meeting hosted by the NRC on July 27 in Athens, Tenn., to review results […]

At the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), generation transitions are nothing new. The nation’s largest public power system—with 34 GW of generating capacity, supplying retail distributors with nine million

Construction was suspended on Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Unit 2 in the late 1980s, and the plant sat idle for more than 20 years. Now, through equipment refurbishment and replacement, Unit 2 is on track to become the first new commercial nuclear reactor to come online in the U.S. in the 21st century.  Electricity consumption […]

At Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), repeated generation transitions have marked the giant public power utility’s long history, from hydro, to coal, to nuclear. The latest resource plan points to natural gas, along with renewables and energy efficiency, as the basis for the agency’s generating future. At the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), generation transitions are nothing […]

When the decision is made to retire a power plant, the work of getting there is just beginning. Maintaining safe and reliable generation requires strong leadership, clear communications, and heightened attention to operations and maintenance, staff morale, and post-shutdown plans.   For utilities and other generators facing the challenge of winding down operations at an […]

Plant officials from the Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s) Watts Bar nuclear facility said during a senior management meeting presentation that Unit 2—currently under construction—is expected to reach commercial operations on Dec. 13, 2015. Assuming it does, the unit will be the first nuclear reactor added to the U.S. fleet since Watts Bar Unit 1 was […]

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) may further reduce its coal-fired capacity and scrap its unfinished Bellefonte nuclear power plant, the utility’s long-awaited draft power generation strategy unveiled on March 9 shows. 
 The federally owned corporation has been developing its 2015 Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), essentially a power planning roadmap to 2033, since fall 2013. The […]

The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) informed the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) on Nov. 10 that it intends to bring suit under the Clean Water Act to stop the release of coal ash pollutants it says are leaking from the TVA’s Gallatin coal ash ponds into the Cumberland River. Gallatin Fossil Plant is a four-unit […]

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is poised to decide on the fate of a coal-fired power plant in Tennessee.  At its next meeting on Aug. 21, the TVA board will likely choose to retire three existing coal-fired units at the Allen Fossil Plant in Shelby County, Tenn., by December 2018 and replace them with a […]