Tennessee Valley Authority President and CEO Tom Kilgore, left, talks before a tour of the Bellefonte Nuclear Plant in Hollywood, Ala., as Ray Hruby listens. The TVA staff plans to ask the TVA board of directors to approve the refurbishing and starting of the plant.
HOLLYWOOD, Ala.-Pinched by federal clean air regulations and expected rising customer demand, TVA again is planning to complete its idled Bellefonte Nuclear Plant.
Tennessee Valley Authority President and CEO Tom Kilgore said Thursday that he will ask the utility’s board of directors in August to OK completing a partially built nuclear reactor at the plant near Scottsboro, Ala.
“Bellefonte is a good asset that needs to be finished,” Kilgore said. “I believe it is the right thing to do. … We’re going to refurbish every single valve and make this a state-of-the-art plant. We submitted a plan to the NRC [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] earlier this year.”
But the utility, which also is closing about half of its coal-fired plants in an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, likely couldn’t have chosen a tougher time for NRC’s or the public’s nuclear scrutiny.
The world has been watching the unfolding nuclear disaster in Japan, and the local public has been watching TVA’s other nuclear plants have problem after problem recently with unexpected shutdowns caused by both faulty equipment and by disastrous weather.