ATHENS, Ala. - TVA will spend $160 million to better cool water used at its biggest nuclear power plant after getting in hot water this summer.
TVA officials told the utility's nine-member board today that the agency will add another cooling tower and expand four of the six existing cooling devices used to cool water at the Browns Ferry plant here.
TVA had to scale back power generation during two of the past four summers because the water drawn from the Tennessee River here got too hot and threatened to exceed thermal standards. TVA Chief Operating Officer Bill McCollum said TVA lost $50 million this year because of power cutbacks at Browns Ferry during hot summer days.
Unlike TVA's other nuclear plants, which use giant draft-air cooling towers to cool water heated during plant operations, TVA uses smaller forced-air cooling towers at Browns Ferry.
See Friday's Times Free Press for complete coverage.