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One of the three operating TVA Nuclear Plants is located close to Watts Bar
Dam. Watts Bar Nuclear Plant was originally designed to be a two unit,
light pressurized water (LPW) reactor plant, but after over 20 years in
the works, they finally got unit 1 operational in 1996. Unit 2 is
officially listed as "deferred". The one functioning unit can
produce 1158 megawatts (thats over one billion watts!). In September of
2000, it was shut down for refueling after a continuous 512 day run.
This was a TVA record for their 3 functioning LPW reactors. The other
two LPW reactors are at Sequoyah Nuclear Plant, near Chattanooga, TN.
It's actually located at Soddy-Daisy, TN, Jan's home town. Near Decatur,
AL is the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant, with three (two still on line)
boiling water reactors. People associate "TVA" with
"dams", but in (fiscal year) 2000, TVA's nukes provided almost
31% of the total power generated. Fossil fuels provided the most at
62.5%. Hydro came in under 6%, but its was bad year for hydro because of
the continuing drought.
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