The Watts Bar Nuclear Plant near Spring City, Tenn., has become the first nuclear power plant in America to gain regulatory approval for meeting new equipment and safety standards adopted in the wake of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami at the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the Tennessee Valley Authority has upgraded plant safety systems, emergency pumping equipment and preventative maintenance programs to sufficiently protect Watts Bar against any natural or man-made disasters similar to what crippled the safety systems at three of the five reactors at the Fukushima plant.
The approval is one of the last major steps for TVA to gain a nuclear license to operate a second reactor at the Watts Bar plant near Spring City – the first new nuclear unit to be added to America’s grid in nearly two decades.
Staff photo by Doug Strickland
Senior vice president of operations and construction Mike Skaggs stands inside of the unit 2 reactor containment during a tour of TVA’s Watts Bar nuclear plant Wednesday, April 29, 2015, in Spring City, Tenn. TVA plans for the nuclear plant’s second reactor unit to come online by the end of the year.“Every nuclear facility, at some point, is going to have to do what it can to ensure the safety of its workers and the public in the event of something like Fukushima happening,” TVA spokesman Scott Brooks said Tuesday. “We have been working on mitigation strategies at Watts Bar even before the NRC came out with its requirements and as a result we are the first nuclear power station in the country to be inspected by the NRC and we have passed.”
NRC inspectors in April reviewed TVA’s $80 million Flex building – a concrete bunker used to store backup equipment and generators – along with TVA’s elevated diesel generator units and other new safety systems and processe. The additional equipment and procedures were implemented at Watts Bar to comply with changes based upon the NRC’s post-Fukushima safety analysis.