The Tennessee Valley Authority scrapped plans a decade ago to pioneer the next generation of nuclear power at its Bellefonte Nuclear Plant in Alabama, but TVA isn’t giving up on serving its role as a “living laboratory” for another new type of nuclear plant – at least someday.
On Monday, TVA will pitch an Oak Ridge site for a pilot plant using small modular reactors. Although the nuclear industry has yet to gain approval for a small nuclear plant design and TVA has no immediate needs for more power, TVA is continuing to seek an early site permit for small modular reactors to be built on the Clinch River in Anderson County.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which must approve new site and designs for nuclear power plants, has scheduled public hearings Monday afternoon and evening at the Pollard Technology Conference Center Auditorium in Oak Ridge. The NRC will seek public comments on what environmental matters it should consider during its review of the early site permit application, which TVA submitted last May.
“We have a major customer (the U.S. Department of Energy) that is interested in this and we continue to have an interest and role in innovation in the energy field,” TVA President Bill Johnson said. “This early site permit will be good for 20 years so we’re just planning to be ready should the opportunity arise.”
TVA is proposing to locate any new small modular reactors on the site of the abandoned Clinch River Breeder Reactor, which President Carter scrapped nearly 40 years ago over concerns about nuclear proliferation from mixing civilian and military weapons production at a nuclear plant.