The Watts Bar Nuclear Plant team has commenced transferring 193 new fuel assemblies into the Unit 2 reactor. The Tennesee Valley Authority has begun loading fuel into the Unit 2 reactor at its Watts Bar Nuclear Plant near Spring City, Tenn.
TVA crews at Watts Bar will transfer 193 new fuel assemblies into the Unit 2 reactor in preparation for nuclear power generation to begin in the next several weeks. The fuel loading which began Friday is expected to be completed early next week.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Oct. 22 approved an operating license for the second reactor at Watts Bar, nearly 43 years after the regulatory agency first granted a construction permit for work to begin on the nuclear plant. The operating license allows TVA to load nuclear fuel into the new unit and begin testing of the equipment and likely produce power by the end of the year.
TVA projects the Unit 2 reactor will be designated a commercial unit - and the more than $4.2 billion of investment made in the unit in the past seven years be brought into TVA's rate base - by next spring when the plant is in full operation.
Each of the two reactors at Watts Bar can generate 1,150 megawatts, or enough power to supply more than 650,000 homes from each unit.