TVA delays decision on fate of Bellefonte
SCOTTSBORO - The Tennessee Valley Authority has announced it will delay until later this year a decision on whether to finish its Bellefonte Nuclear Plant near Scottsboro.
The TVA Board of Directors had initially said it would make a decision April 15.
TVA spokesman Terry Johnson said Wednesday the utility needs more time to review the project before officials can make a proposal to the board. "We want to take the necessary time to make a prudent decision," he said.
TVA has said it would consider one of several options for Bellefonte:
Taking no action.
Completing and operating one of the two existing units
Building and operating a new Westinghouse AP1000 unit.
Dus Rogers, executive director of the Jackson County Economic Development Authority, said Wednesday that he and other officials had been told by TVA that it was "not quite ready" to make a decision on Bellefonte.
Johnson said TVA expects to finish the study by August, "but that's not certain."
The Scottsboro City Council and Jackson County Commission recently adopted resolutions supporting completion of Bellefonte and construction of a new reactor unit beside it.
In March 2009, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved TVA's request that its construction permit for Bellefonte be reinstated.
TVA stopped construction at the twin-reactor plant in 1988 because of less-than-projected power demand and withdrew its construction permit in 2006. The utility asked for it back two years later after NuStart, a consortium of nuclear power utilities, agreed to help complete it.
