HOLLYWOOD, Ala. - Chattanooga developer Franklin L. Haney, who has spent the past decade trying to buy TVA's Bellefonte Nuclear Power plant, is one of the bidders today at an auction of the abandoned nuclear palnt.
The Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation's largest federal utility, is selling an unfinished nuclear power plant in northeast Alabama today after determining it won't need the power the plant could generate for at least the next two decades.
Former Alabama Congressman Bud Cramer, D-Ala., who has worked with Haney for years to try to partner or acquire Bellefonte and finish the plant, confirmed that Haney plans to enter the bidding process today at 10 a.m.
Phoenix Energy of Nevada, which had proposed trying to build a new type of energy development at the plant, wll not bid.
"We weren't able to put the fiancing in place in time," said Brian Smith, managing partner for Phoenix Energ.
Minimum bids are set at $36.4 million.
The utility says it wants the property used in a way that will benefit the surrounding economy of the Tennessee Valley.
Work began at the site in 197s, but the utility suspended construction in 1988 and never finished the two-reactor plant as demand for electricity softened.
The purchaser will get buildings and 1,600 acres of land on the Tennessee River.