Tennessee: Watts Bar jobs help during downturn

SPRING CITY, Tenn. — After nearly four decades of stops and starts, work crews are busy again building another part of Watts Bar Nuclear Plant.

Local officials say the $2.5 billion, five-year project to finish the second reactor at Watts Bar couldn’t come at a better time for the local economy.

“We’ve got the highest unemployment rate I can ever remember right now, so we’re looking for any kind of help we can get,” Meigs County Mayor Ken Jones said.

TVA Vice President Masoud Bajestani said 1,644 contract workers and 70 TVA employees are working to finish the Unit 2 reactor. By December, Mr. Bajestani said 2,450 workers should be on the job.

Rhea County Executive Billy Ray Patton said the Watts Bar jobs are helping during the worst recession in a generation. In February, the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development said the jobless rate was 13.1 percent in Meigs County and 12.9 percent in Rhea County.

“I hope the construction work goes on as long as possible,” Mr. Patton said.

But TVA and Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials said Monday that the work is proceeding according to plan and should be completed in the next three years. TVA plans to ask regulators for an operating permit for Watts Bar Unit 2 in 2011 and begin power generation by 2012.

“I believe we’re on the right track to deliver the reactor on time and on budget,” said Mr. Bajestani, who said the work is 22 percent complete.

NRC Chairman Dale Klein said TVA “is proceeding in a logical manner” on the Unit 2 construction.

“They are using the lessons learned from Browns Ferry Unit 1,” he said.

During construction, TVA is paying Meigs and Rhea counties more than $500,000 each year. Both counties have used those funds for school construction projects and other county government programs.

TVA began construction at Watts Bar in 1972 and completed the Unit 1 reactor in 1996.