Free Republic

WATE: Authorities are investigating after a security guard was fired upon at the Watts Bar Nuclear Power Plant. It happened around 2 a.m. today on the TVA property near the Tennessee River about a quarter mile from the plant's protected area. Officials say the security officer was patrolling the area when he was shot at, he returned fire and was uninjured. The shooting lead the Watts Bar plant staff to declare an unusual event, which is the lowest of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's four emergency classifications. The FBI will also be sending a team. A suspect has not been found.

"The Watts Bar Nuclear Plant project manager who was recently fired by TVA sent large sums of money to his native Iran, according to documents in his divorce case. TVA officials have not said why Masoud Bajestani was dismissed - only that it was not related to his job performance. Bajestani had been in charge of leading the country's largest nuclear project after earlier completing a similar project at the Brown's Ferry Nuclear Plant in Athens, Ala..."

Knoxville, Tenn. (AP) -- The Tennessee Valley Authority's board of directors voted unanimously Wednesday to begin a five-year plan to finish a second nuclear reactor at the Watt Bar Nuclear Plant on the Tennessee River. The Spring City station, about 50 miles south of Knoxville, was the last new nuclear plant to come on line in the United States when it fired up one of its two planned reactors in 1996. The second reactor was never finished because of cost overruns. The plan to finish it is expected to cost about $2.5 billion, likely funded by the public utility's revenues...