Local company made reactor vessels

Reactor vessels similar to those in the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan were built in Chattanooga during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The reactors were built at the former Combustion Engineering plant and continue to operate at TVA's Browns Ferry nuclear plant in Alabama.

General Electric Corp., which designed and supplied the key components for three of the six units of the Fukushima plant, contracted with Combustion Engineering to build reactor vessels similar to the Fukushima GE units. C-E built components for the Hatch nuclear plant in Georgia and the Cooper nuclear plant in Nebraska, among others, retired C-E superintendent Richard Livingood said.

GE spokesman Michael Tetuan said Combustion's Chattanooga facility did not fabricate the Fukushima plant parts.

Tetuan said GE's equipment in the Fukushima reactor appears to have held up well during Japan's largest earthquake in recorded history.

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