Submitted
KNOXVILLE—The Tennessee Valley Authority provided $547 million in tax equivalent payments in fiscal year 2013 to states and local governments where it sells electricity or has power properties.
TVA pays tax equivalent payments annually in the eight states where it sells electricity or owns generating plants, transmission lines, substations and other assets, and directly to 146 local governments where TVA owns power facilities. [Read more…]
The Babcock and Wilcox Co. has invested more than $360 million in a project that could result in a small nuclear reactor at the former Clinch River Breeder Reactor Site in west Oak Ridge, pictured above. (Photo courtesy Tennessee Valley Authority)
The Babcock and Wilcox Co. has already invested more than $360 million in a project that could result in a small nuclear reactor in west Oak Ridge, and now the North Carolina company is looking for investors and possibly majority owners.
The mPower small modular reactor, or SMR, program is expected to have a nuclear power plant operating at the former Clinch River Breeder Reactor Site by 2022. Initially, it could have two small reactors, a “twin pack,” and produce 360 megawatts.
On Wednesday, Marshall Cohen, B&W vice president for government affairs and communications, said the company is seeking major corporations who are interested in taking a “strong position,” up to and including ownership, including majority ownership.
“We would reduce our ownership to one that really matches the scope of work going forward,” Cohen said. [Read more…]
Tennessee Valley Authority staff members, who designed graphics showing TVA’s role on the Tennessee River and displaying river safety information, join TVA board member Neil McBride, center, and others who helped renovate the exhibit. Laura Smith, with TVA, holds the plaque thanking TVA for its many contributions to the exhibit. (Submitted photos)
Children are once again splashing water as they send wooden tugboats down river in the TVA Waterworks Exhibit at the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge. The exhibit recently reopened with some new additions that highlight learning through play.
In addition to operating small locks and dams in a flume donated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, children now may climb aboard a child-sized tugboat for an imaginary trip down the Tennessee River. After boarding, children may walk around the deck before entering the pilot house and crews’ quarters of the red, white, and blue tugboat, a small-scale replica of Ingram Marine Group’s working tugboats. [Read more…]
Ed Stephens, program manager for the Renewable Energy Program at the Tennessee Valley Authority, explains the 18 wind turbines at the Buffalo Mountain Wind Farm north of Oliver Springs.
WINDROCK MOUNTAIN—A Tennessee Valley Authority program that allows customers to buy electricity produced by renewable energy sources has generated about one million megawatt-hours—enough to power 68,000 homes, officials said Monday.
TVA considers the innovative Green Power Switch program, the first of its kind in the Southeast when it started 13 years ago, a success story. TVA said the program has helped prevent more than 700,000 tons of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the atmosphere. That’s equal to keeping about 135,000 cars off the road for a year.
And it’s grown from 2,000 customers in 2000 to roughly 12,000 today. That could be because customers today are more aware of environmental concerns and have a greater understanding of their power sources, said Patty West, director of TVA’s Renewable Energy Program. [Read more…]
Cleanup work at the Kingston Fossil Plant, pictured above, continues despite the federal government shutdown. Workers are cleaning up the largest ash spill in U.S. history. Roughly 5.4 million cubic yards of ash spilled in December 2008 when a storage cell failed.
Work to clean up the ash spill at the Kingston Fossil Plant continues despite the federal government shutdown, a spokesman said Wednesday.
The partial government shutdown shouldn’t affect the Tennessee Valley Authority, which owns and operates the plant, because the public utility doesn’t receive federal funding, spokesman Duncan Mansfield said Wednesday.
Agencies involved in the cleanup project, such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Corps of Engineers, have furloughed some workers. But there are still many workers at the Kingston ash spill site, Mansfield said.
“The majority of the work is being performed by contractors,” he said. [Read more…]
The Norris Dam in Anderson County can produce electricity for the Tennessee Valley Authority. (Photo courtesy TVA)
KNOXVILLE—More electricity was generated from the Tennessee Valley Authority’s 29 hydroelectric dams in fiscal year 2013, which ended Sept. 30, than in any other year in the agency’s 80-year history.
The dams provided 18.5 million megawatt-hours of clean, renewable energy, breaking the previous record set in 1973 by 122,000 MWh. That is enough electricity to serve more than 1.2 million homes in the TVA service area for an entire year.
Above-average rain and runoff fueled the increase in hydro generation. The Tennessee Valley received almost 62 inches of rainfall and almost 30 inches of runoff in fiscal 2013, which were 121 percent and 136 percent of normal, respectively. Runoff is the amount of rainfall that actually reaches streams and creeks, and eventually the Tennessee River, its tributaries, and TVA’s dams. [Read more…]
The City of Oak Ridge has achieved platinum status in the Tennessee Valley Authority’s new “Valley Sustainable Communities” program. This designation will enhance the city’s competitiveness for new investments and jobs when companies are looking to grow in new or expanded locations.
The program is sponsored by TVA and developed and administered by consultant Boyette Strategic Advisors.
“The platinum designation recognizes that the Oak Ridge community has made a significant and comprehensive commitment to sustainability and also has thoroughly integrated economic development into its sustainability efforts,” said Del Boyette, BSA president and chief executive officer. [Read more…]
The Oak Ridge City Council on Monday approved water and sewer rate increases that will take effect January 2014 and January 2015. (File photo)
There was much opposition online, and in phone calls to city hall, but few public objections to back-to-back utility rate increases at a Monday night Oak Ridge City Council meeting.
The Council voted in two separate 6-1 votes to raise water and sewer rates in January 2014 and again in January 2015. The increases range from 8 percent to 15 percent.
The new rate hikes, which will be considered on second and final reading in October, would result in water bills that could go up by a minimum of $1.35 per month in January 2014 and then another $1.19 per month in 2015. Sewer bills would increase a minimum of $2.78 per month next year and then rise another $2.13 per month the following year. [Read more…]
A former Tennessee Valley Authority executive pleaded guilty Wednesday to unlawful financial investments in Iran and filing false tax returns, federal officials said.
Former TVA Vice President Masoud Bajestani, 58, formerly of Chattanooga, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, and Iranian Transactions Regulations, and two counts of filing false income tax returns, said U.S. Attorney William C. Killian of the Eastern District of Tennessee. Bajestani also agreed to forfeit $600,000 in U.S. currency, representing the funds used to promote the specified unlawful activity, Killian said.
A draft image of what a sewer system holding tank could look like on Emory Valley Road east of the former Daniel Arthur Rehabilitation Center. The proposal could change based upon input from Oak Ridge City Council members. (Images courtesy City of Oak Ridge)
Oak Ridge officials are considering utility rate increases that could cost many residents another $6.87 per month, and they have also proposed building three large sewer system holding tanks, including two near busy roadways, in response to a federal order requiring the city to stop all sewer system overflows by September 2015.
Council could consider those proposals, as well as a request to buy three new fire trucks, during its Sept. 9 meeting. [Read more…]
Conceptual drawing of an underground containment structure housing two B&W mPower™ reactor modules. (Image courtesy B&W)
Federal officials have agreed to spend another $20.5 million on a project that could result in a small modular nuclear reactor in west Oak Ridge within a decade.
The Babcock & Wilcox Co. announced Tuesday that the U.S. Department of Energy has allocated the additional funding to an agreement with Babcock & Wilcox mPower Inc. (B&W mPower) under what is known as the Small Modular Reactor Licensing Technical Support Program.
The small modular reactor, which can generate 180 megawatts of electricity, could be built at the former Clinch River Breeder Reactor site in west Oak Ridge by 2022. [Read more…]
Roane County has been designated as a Valley Sustainable Silver Community by the Tennessee Valley Authority through a program initiated by their Economic Development department to help communities improve existing sustainability programs and increase their ability to attract new investment in their community.
Roane County recently completed the TVA-sponsored program, which was developed and administered by consultant Boyette Strategic Advisors. The program documents a community’s assets to increase the likelihood that it will be viewed as progressive and competitive by companies looking to invest in new or expanded locations. [Read more…]
