Generating Station in Tennessee is 90 percent finished. Posted on 05/14/2015 7:50:06 AM PDT by Rio
It’s taken so long to complete, the newest nuclear plant in the U.S. will run on 1970s-era technology. But finally, after nearly four decades, the second reactor at the Watt Bar Nuclear Generating Station in Tennessee is 90 percent finished.
Construction of the plant got underway in 1973, six years after the Tennessee Valley Authority announced plans for 17 new nuclear reactors in Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi. But by the 1980s, a down economy and high construction costs caused the TVA to scrap plans for nearly half of those plants.
Work on Watts Bar nevertheless carried on — but regulatory issues slowed progress and the first reactor wasn’t operational until 1996.
The second reactor, meanwhile, was mired in its own delays, including construction costs that ballooned to $4.3 billion over the last decade (2007 estimates projected the costs would total about $2.5 billion).
But better late than never, says TVA. Although electricity demand in Tennessee has remained flat, TVA says the new reactor — which will provide enough electricity to power 650,000 homes — will help replace energy from coal plants as they go off line. Adjusting the energy mix to give nuclear a bigger piece of the pie will also help reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. Currently, electricity generated by TVA is 43 percent coal, 36 percent nuclear, 12 percent hydroelectric, 9 percent natural gas (with a small amount of oil) and less than 1 percent non-hydro renewables.
The core barrel that holds the nuclear reactor core is shown here at Watts Bar 2 as it is being placed into the reactor vessel as part of reactor assembly. Source: TVA
According to an Associated Press report, using the older technology has posed unique issues during the reactor's construction. "TVA pulled out many old pieces of equipment for replacement or refurbishment. The U-shaped control room for the newest reactor was designed to look just like the first, even though some of the underlying technology has changed," AP reported.
Chris Dujado, left, and Billy Horton, right, control room operators for Unit 2, review information from monitoring panels at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant. (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski)
In this April 29, 2015 photo, Tom Wallace, the senior manager for Unit 2, leads a tour inside the Unit 2 cooling tower, which is under construction, at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant near Spring City, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski)
A home sits within view of the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant cooling towers Unit 1, left, and Unit 2. (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski)
According to a Forbes report, the plant has been built to withstand earthquakes, any huge dam failures, a tornado hurling a 4,000lb object at it — and even an airplane crashing into it.
The second Watts Bar reactor is slated to become operational late next year.
There are technicians and contractors who have worked their entire adult lives building this reactor.
How in hell did we ever manage to win the war?
Hard to believe how long it takes to build a nuclear power plant nowadays.
Compare that with how long it took to win World War II.
Off topic, but I recently read that the Washington, DC Metro subway system was shutting down escalators in one station on the system, for three years, to replace the escalators at that one station. Three years to replace escalators??? I was shocked.
Here is a direct link to the article and pictures.
government getting in the way is why it take so long
For a job that shouldn’t take 3 weeks.
Wow! that control room looks so vintage 1970's... Wait, it is!
Locally, the main road between our house and the freeway was shut down so they could put in some sewer pipes for some new apartments. This of course has been causing major traffic problems. It happened two months ago. For the first month nothing was basically being done and if you were able to drive around the road blocks you could get through without any problems. Now they have it sealed off better... nothing has been done, but they have equipment parked on the road so that it would be hard to get through. I don't know when they are planning on re-opening the road.
Union contract.
Re: NUke power plants. Part of the reason it takes so long is the damned regulations that require the plans to change even after it has been built.
I have a younger brother in law who started work at TVA as soon as he graduated with his BSEE and he has retired from TVA during this timeframe.
How many union workers will work on that job?
Answer:
Half of them.
Walmart takes six months to fix the plumbing.
They’re busy connecting the underground tunnels!!!!
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