TVA immediately will add satellite telephones and small portable generators at its three operating nuclear plants, and could within months strengthen power and water supplies to spent fuel pools and speed up the transfer of nuclear waste from pools to dry cask storage.
Chief Operating Officer Bill McCollum told board members Thursday at a meeting in Chattanooga that reviews after the Japanese nuclear crisis confirm that the utility’s six reactors and five spent fuel pools are safe.
They already had been “retrofitted with safety measures to assure defense-in-depth,” he said. “But we are working to assure that we’re ready for the unexpected.”
TVA board Chairman Dennis Bottorff said the board has hired consultants to help assess the utility’s nuclear program.
While TVA reassesses its existing plants, the board delayed a decision on whether to complete a reactor at the 30-year-old Bellefonte Nuclear Plant in Hollywood, Ala.