TVA has signed a letter of intent with a contractor to design, license and build six prefabricated nuclear reactors to be sited at the former Clinch River Breeder Reactor site in Roane County.
And recent correspondence with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission indicates the utility by 2020 may site 10 to 12 of the small modular reactors, called SMRs, which never before have been licensed.
The reactors – each capable of producing about one-tenth the power of a large, traditional nuclear reactor – would be the first “commercially viable” small nuclear plants, according to Babcock & Wilcox, the contractor.
TVA Chief Operating Officer Bill McCollum is quoted in the Babcock & Wilcox news release about the letter of intent.
“Successful deployment of small reactor technology will increase the options available for clean, reliable and safe power generation,” McCollum said in the release.