about Clay Bennett...
The son of a career army officer, Bennett led a nomadic life, attending ten different schools before graduating in 1980 from the University of North Alabama with degrees in Art and History. After brief stints as a staff artist at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Fayetteville (NC) Times, he went on to serve as the editorial cartoonist for the St. Petersburg Times (1981-1994) and The Christian Science Monitor (1997-2007), before joining the staff of the ...
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TVA needs to maintain an initiative to increase its nuclear fleet to meet any and all future power demand. With respect to Bellefonte, the TVA should strongly consider using the newer AP1000 design over the original Babcock & Wilcox. The newer technology will be safer and simplified over the 70's era design. The initial cost and process of building an entirely new plant is measured in years and billions of dollars, so it only makes sense to push forward with Bellefonte since it has already passed many major approval hurdles put in place by the NRC.
Retrofitting and upgrading is nothing new to current operating nuclear power plants. It occurs on a fairly regular basis to "uprate" or "rerate" the plant to produce more power. Many plants older than Bellefonte have been upgraded to extend their operating license because they have proven they can operate in a safe, reliable manner. If Bellefonte can utilize the newer reactor design, the operating life of the plant will well exceed 50 years. Many plants in operation today will approach the 50 year mark.
I might as well mention it, because it is going to come up - it will be even more important for the TVA to move more towards nuclear power if Cap and Trade is passed. It will lessen the economic blow on the taxpayer regionally compared the rest of the country. Areas like the Midwest will bear most of the burden of Cap and Trade because of their current reliance on fossil fuels. It would still influence prices here as well on goods and services that depend on fossil fuel.
This is a perfect metaphor for the Bellefonte Power Plant.
Yesterday, there was a front page story about this plant. It's been sitting idle since TVA stopped construction on the plant in 1988. Now, the utility is trying to decide what to do with the project. The two options seem to be, 1) complete the construction of a 1970s-era power plant, or 2) build a new power plant with an improved , safer, design.
Obviously, the latter of those two choices is preferred, but the former is less expensive. I wonder what TVA will decide?
Very lucid. Thanks, aces.
If I had 7 Billion dollars in a TV, I would watch it for a while before I went out and bought a new one.
Bellefonte can produce power for 1/4 the cost of what fossil and gas generated power would cost. It can run 18 to 24 months at full power without refueling. And it can produce 2,600 megawatts (6 times what all of Chattanooga needs) while only the newest wind generators can generate over 1 megawatt - and solar is still talking kilowatts.
Fryyo wrote,
"If I had 7 Billion dollars in a TV, I would watch it for a while before I went out and bought a new one."
If I had 7 billion dollars in a TV, I'd hide it in my garage/man-cave, lest my wife find out about it and visit unspeakable damage upon my person.
It seems that a large piece of the capitol investment is already there, it would seem to be wasteful to start over from scratch if the original design can be upgraded and/or operated safely. Of course we are talking about TVA, ao who knows.
SCOTTYM writes, "It seems that a large piece of the capitol investment is already there, it would seem to be wasteful to start over from scratch if the original design can be upgraded and/or operated safely."
Wasn't that the same rationale that TVA applied to the retention pond at the Kingston Coal Plant?
OllieH,
I honestly do not know. It seems to me they were just ignoring that whole operation until it blew up in their faces.
SCOTTYM-
It did blow up in their faces (or, more accurately, the faces of the good people of Kingston, Tennessee), but make no mistake about it, that earthen retention pond was designed to contain costs, more than it was to contain coal ash.
In the (literal) wake of the disaster in Kingston, TVA pledged to put public safety first. Now, just weeks after making that vow, the utility is considering simply finishing the construction on the older plant at Bellefonte, instead of rebuilding with a safer design.
Perhaps, TVA meant they were going to put TALKING about public safety first.
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