The Tennessee Valley Authority could become one of the first utilities to pioneer a new smaller nuclear reactor design that developers hope will be simpler, cheaper and safer than existing nuclear power plants and could be critical in helping the nation’s biggest government utility to become carbon free with its power generation.
TVA is the first U.S. utility to obtain an early site permit for a small modular reactor proposed to be built on the Clinch River in Oak Ridge. TVA is studying the feasibility of building several small reactors on the Oak Ridge site – and ultimately others on other abandoned power plant locations in TVA’s seven-state region – to help replace power generation from TVA’s aging fleet of coal-fired power plants.
But TVA CEO Jeff Lyash wants a partnership with other industry players and federal support if it is to be a first-of-its-kind developer for the new smaller modular reactors.
“TVA will not go this alone,” Lyash told an American Nuclear Society conference last week. “There is always a higher cost for first-of-a-kind technologies, but for TVA we cannot ask our customers to bear that first-of-a-kind premium. I think there is a very clear role here for the federal government in order to encourage development and support for this promising technology.”
Lyash noted that one 300-megawatt small modular reactor built in Oak Ridge by TVA could generate enough carbon-free electricity to ensure that all of the federal facilities in the Tennessee Valley are net- zero emitters of any greenhouse gas emissions linked to global climate change.