The primary contractor hired by the Tennessee Valley Authority three years ago to help assess the Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant overbilled TVA by more than $1.2 million before the project was halted, according to a new audit of the work.
In a newly released summary report, TVA's Inspector General said Areva NP Inc. overstated nearly a third of the value of its $5.1 million of rate adjustments made as part of Areva's work at the Bellefonte plant in 2012 and 2013. Areva, the French-based nuclear engineering firm, previously gave TVA back $607,637 for over billed work. But the contractor and TVA have yet to agree on another $1.2 million of disputed claims.
TVA spokesman Jim Hopson said both TVA and Areva "continue to investigate the details contained in the Inspector Generat's report and are seeking to resolve these issues as quickly as possible."
But TVA is in no hurry to restart work at the Bellefonte plant, where the TVA board in 2011 reversed its earlier decision to scrap the plant. TVA hired Areva to help assess and design how to finish the twin-reactor complex.
TVA began building Bellefonte in 1974, but work was halted in 1985 when demand faltered and questions were raised about the safety to TVA's nuclear plants.
TVA's Bellefonte nuclear plant can be seen from Highway 72.TVA has spent more than $6 billion to construction the reactor buildings, cooling towers and transmission facilities at Bellefonte, which is located in Hollywood, Ala., along the Tennessee River.
TVA President Bill Johnson said the federal utility doesn't expect to need any base load energy generation from another nuclear plant like Bellefonte and has halted any further construction on the Alabama plant. Johnson said the audit of the contract work helps keep control of contract work done by outside firms.
"The Inspector General plays an important role in evaluating our contracts and checking the work that has been done to ensure that we only pay for what is appropriate," Johnson said.
Areva owns the design of the Babcock & Wilcox pressurized water reactor at Bellefonte, which is bigger than any of the other B&W designed plants in operation in the United States. Although the Bellefonte design is unique, Areva Chief Operating Officer Michael Rencheck said in 2012 that the design changes proposed at Bellefonte "are evolutionary, not revolutionary" from similar but smaller reactor designs.
Contact Dave Flessner at dflessner@timesfreepress.com or at 757-6340