nuclear-news

Delays, cost overruns at TVA’s Watts Bar Nuclear Plant

TVA’s nuclear reactor in the works will cost more and take longer to finish than estimated  THE TENNESSEAN, 5 April 12, Construction of a second reactor at TVA’s Watts Bar Nuclear Plant will cost an additional $1.5 billion to $2 billion to complete and won’t befinished until 2015, officials disclosed today…….
Anti-nuclear activists and others, who had pressed the power producer
for more energy efficiency and alternative energy projects, had argued
before construction began that it would cost more and take longer to
build than expected.

“TVA’s decision in August, 2007 to restart construction on Watts Bar’s
second reactor was flawed from the very beginning,” Stephen Smith,
executive director of Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said in a
press release.

“Their decision to award the eventual construction contract to
Betchel, the same firm who provided initial cost-estimates, created a
massive conflict of interest, which SACE highlighted at the time.” He
said TVA’s announcement “shows the inherent financial risks of nuclear
power and provides yet another chapter in TVA’s long history of
dramatic delays and nuclear cost overruns.”

He said it further brings into question a decision to move forward to
complete a reactor at TVA’s Bellefonte site in northern
Alabama………
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20120405/NEWS11/304050075/TVA-s-nuclear-reactor-works-will-cost-more-take-longer-finish-than-estimated?odyssey=nav%7Chead

April 6, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general