A federal judge in Alabama has set a status conference for Thursday to get an update and possible schedule for hearing a legal challenge to the decision last month by the Tennessee Valley Authority to scrap plans to sell one of America’s last unfinished nuclear plants with a pending construction permit.
Former Chattanooga developer Franklin L. Haney, who agreed two years ago to buy the unfinished Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant from TVA for $111 million, is suing TVA for not completing the sale on Nov. 30.
TVA contends that such a sale was not allowed, and Haney’s Nuclear Development LLC didn’t meet the terms of the contract, because the transfer of a construction permit for Bellefonte was not approved by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. TVA began work on Bellefonte and obtained a construction permit in the 1970s, although construction was halted on the plant in 1988 when power demand slowed and the cost of completing the plant rose more than originally forecast.
Haney submitted an application last month to transfer the deferred construction permit on the plant from TVA to Nuclear Development. But the NRC is still reviewing the adequacy of the buyers to complete the project. NRC officials said it will likely takes months to review the permit transfer.
Haney said last month he was surprised that TVA required the license transfer for the plant sale, noting that any licensing of the plant will ultimately require additional extensive review by federal regulators.