NRC AUTHORIZES RESTART OF BROWNS FERRY NUCLEAR PLANT UNIT 1
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Region II office in Atlanta notified Tennessee Valley Authority officials today that the agency is authorizing the restart of Unit 1 at the Browns Ferry nuclear power plant in Alabama.
“TVA has completed an extensive refurbishment of Unit 1 and the NRC staff has closely monitored their progress throughout the project,†Region II Deputy Regional Administrator for Operations Victor McCree said.
All three units of the Browns Ferry plant were shut down in 1985 to address performance and management issues, but the reactors retained NRC operating licenses. TVA agreed at the time that it would complete corrective actions and not restart any of the units without NRC concurrence. After TVA completed all the work involved with those corrective actions with NRC inspection and approval, Unit 2 was restarted in 1991 and Unit 3 was restarted in 1995.
NRC inspectors have reviewed the activities on Unit 1 during the past several years and recently completed a comprehensive operational readiness inspection prior to determining that TVA had met NRC standards and could restart the final unit.
