The Tennessee Valley Authority, along with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, will hold a public meeting on progress of the Kingston Ash Recovery Project and long-term monitoring plans.
The meeting will be held Thursday, May 30, from 5:30-7 p.m. in the auditorium of Roane County High School in Kingston. The auditorium is in Building B on the Spring Street side of the high school. [Read more…]
A 28-acre site at Horizon Center has been designated by the Tennessee Valley Authority as a site that is ready to recruit data centers. (Submitted photo)
The Tennessee Valley Authority has identified a 28-acre site at Horizon Center in west Oak Ridge as a potential data center site, a designation that will help Oak Ridge recruit companies, an official said.
“Having a primary data center site in Oak Ridge is a tremendous advantage and will definitely give us a competitive edge when recruiting data center prospects,” said Kim Denton, president and chief executive officer of the Oak Ridge Economic Partnership. [Read more…]
Information from WYSH Radio
Students, teachers, and school administrators gathered to dedicate a new, so-called “net zero” classroom on the campus of Clinton High School on Tuesday.
The 1,150-square-foot building is powered by solar panels and is independent of the electric grid. The classroom, believed to be the first of its kind in the state, was funded by the school system as well as grants from Tennessee Valley Authority and Oak Ridge National Laboratory as well as other sponsors. [Read more…]
Local and state officials joined business executives and German officials at a Thursday ribbon-cutting ceremony for a 50 kilowatt photovoltaic solar array at Heritage Center.
Note: This story was updated at 9:25 a.m. April 29.
A Tennessee solar company and the German Energy Agency, or dena, celebrated their first U.S. solar project Thursday, a 50 kilowatt photovoltaic solar array at Heritage Center in west Oak Ridge.
The array includes seven ground-mounted trackers that are 20 feet high. They each include 28-30 solar panels. The trackers adjust themselves to capture the most sunlight, using two sensors each to adjust from east to west and tilting up and down.
It’s a public-private partnership involving dena and Vis Solis LLC of Franklin, Tenn., a subsidiary of Vis Solis GmbH in Breesen, Germany. Also involved is German manufacturer DEGERenergie.
It’s a $250,000 to $300,000 investment, said Carlos Mayer, Vis Solis chief executive officer. [Read more…]
Watts Bar Nuclear Plant
A Tennessee Valley Authority spokesman declined to speculate on a motive for a Sunday morning shooting at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in Rhea County, but he said the suspect could be a male wearing a dark-colored sweatshirt with a hood.
Other than that, officials have little information on the suspect, who appears to have fled in a small boat, TVA spokesman Jim Hopson said Monday.
“It was difficult to provide any kind of description,” he said.
The unidentified man was spotted by a nuclear security officer at about 2 a.m. Sunday. The guard was on a routine patrol in a pickup truck on the perimeter of the 1,700-acre plant. As the officer came around a curve, the truck’s headlights illuminated a person on the shore of the Tennessee River, on the eastern side of the plant and near its southern boundary. [Read more…]
An unidentified suspect fired on a security officer at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant near Spring City early Sunday morning, and the officer fired back. No one was injured, and the suspect fled. (Photo courtesy of TVA)
An unidentified suspect fired multiple rounds at a security officer on patrol at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant early Sunday morning, and at least one round hit the security officer’s vehicle, an official said.
The Tennessee Valley Authority nuclear security officer fired back, also shooting multiple rounds.
The suspect appeared to have initially been on the ground but may have fled in a boat, TVA spokesman Jim Hopson said.
The shots were fired just after 2 a.m. this morning on the east side of the 1,700-acre plant, near the Tennessee River, toward the plant’s southern boundary, TVA said. The officer was several hundred yards outside the protected area where the reactor and power equipment are located. [Read more…]
Lamar Alexander
Bob Corker
Republican lawmakers from Tennessee were critical of the budget proposal released by President Barack Obama on Wednesday, saying it was overdue and failed to responsibly address unsustainable spending on entitlement programs.
In a statement, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander said a proposal to consider selling the Tennessee Valley Authority could cost taxpayers money.
“This is one more bad idea in a budget full of bad ideas,” Alexander said. “There is today no federal taxpayer subsidy for TVA, period. There is by law no federal taxpayer liability for TVA debt. And after deducting its debt, selling TVA would probably cost taxpayers money.” [Read more…]
The proposed Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex is pictured above. (Submitted image)
Many business leaders and public officials consider it a great opportunity.
The proposed Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex could cost up to $6.5 billion and employ up to 1,500 workers during the peak construction period. It’s been called the largest federal capital project in Tennessee since the Manhattan Project, and construction could last another decade.
On Monday, Tennessee officials announced they will help companies that are already in the state and interested in working on the project, and recruit out-of-state businesses, particularly in the nuclear industry. Those new companies will be encouraged to stay in the state, said Bill Hagerty, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. [Read more…]
The automatic federal spending cuts set to start taking effect Friday could result in $23 million in budget cuts at the Tennessee Valley Authority, a spokesman said Wednesday.
But the federal spending cuts—also referred to as sequestration—would probably not lead to temporary layoffs at the public utility, TVA spokesman Duncan Mansfield said. The federal cuts would trim $85 billion from defense and domestic spending for the rest of the fiscal year.
“We anticipate that we would not have to do furloughs, and we would be able to manage that through head count attrition,” Mansfield said. “At this point, we are not seeing an immediate impact.”
The Tennessee Valley Authority and Babcock and Wilcox announced Wednesday a major step in their joint effort to build and test the nation’s first small modular reactor at TVA’s Clinch River Site in Oak Ridge.
TVA and B&W signed a contract Feb. 7 that formalizes the process toward the eventual submittal and Nuclear Regulatory Commission review of a licensing application for a B&W mPower small modular reactor, or SMR, nuclear plant at Clinch River.
KNOXVILLE—The Tennessee Valley Authority reported Tuesday that electricity sales were relatively flat in the first quarter of fiscal year 2013, total revenues were consistent with the prior year, and net income was down.
“TVA’s total operating revenues remain on plan,” new President and Chief Executive Officer Bill Johnson said. “We continue to drive performance and process improvements in order to provide cleaner and low-cost energy to our customers.”
Higher off-system sales as a result of excess generation and closer-to-normal temperatures for the period, compared with even warmer weather a year ago, contributed to a slight 0.2 percent increase in total electricity sales, TVA said in its quarterly filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2012.
Standard and Poor’s Rating Services recently raised its rating on Oak Ridge’s electric system’s revenue debt one notch, from “A-” to “A.”
“This is very good news for the City of Oak Ridge,” City Manager Mark Watson said. “Bonds for the city’s electric utility systems were upgraded and recognized for the stable outlook observed during Standard and Poor’s normal review. A better bond rating will have a positive impact on lower interest rate considerations in the future, if needed.”
