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…]
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 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.
Michael McWherter, former Democratic candidate for governor, was sworn in as a Tennessee Valley Authority board member on Thursday in Nashville. (Photo courtesy of TVA)
A former Democratic candidate for governor became the newest member of the Tennessee Valley Authority board of directors on Thursday.
Michael McWherter, of Jackson, Tenn., took the oath of office Thursday in a ceremony in Nashville. His term will expire on May 18, 2016.
McWherter was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate on Jan. 1, and he was sworn in by U.S. District Judge Todd J. Campbell of the Middle District of Tennessee during a ceremony at the Estes Kefauver Federal Building and Courthouse.
The Tennessee Valley Authority this week said it had earned national recognition for its wind power program.
In November, TVA was named “Utility of the Year” by the American Wind Energy Association, a press release said. The AWEA presents the award each year to the U.S. electric utility that has done the most to advance wind power’s growth through its actions.
TVA added 1,100 megawatts of wind energy capacity from seven wind power sites in 2012, including in Kansas, Illinois, and Iowa. TVA now has 10 contracts with nine wind farms delivering more than 1,500 megawatts of energy, a press release said.
A 161-kV Tennessee Valley Authority transmission line failed Wednesday morning and fell into 13,200-volt city power lines below it, knocking out power to 154 customers in west Oak Ridge for four hours. (Photo courtesy Oak Ridge Electric Department)
A high-voltage Tennessee Valley Authority power line came loose and fell into Oak Ridge power lines below it Wednesday morning, and about 154 customers on the west end of town lost electricity for roughly four hours.
But power was restored to all customers just after 1 p.m. Wednesday, said Margaret Elgin, Oak Ridge Electric Department engineering manager.
Elgin said a 161-kilovolt TVA transmission line failed in a wooded area near Bear Creek Road in west Oak Ridge at about 9 a.m. Wednesday. As a result, a conductor came loose, and the line fell into 13,200-volt city electrical lines below it.
Elgin said there was no threat to public safety during the line failure or power outage.
The Tennessee Valley Authority will rely on natural river processes and long-term monitoring to take care of ash in the Clinch and lower Emory rivers as part of the recovery from the 2008 coal ash spill at the Kingston Fossil Plant, a press release said.
The process, known as Monitored Natural Recovery, was the preferred option among several alternatives proposed to manage an estimated 500,000 cubic yards of remaining ash dispersed intermittently over more than 200 acres in the river system, the release said.
The alternatives were proposed in an Engineering Evaluation and Cost Analysis, which was released for public review and comment in August.
Here is more information from the press release:
TVA’s selection of Monitored Natural Recovery, also called EE/CA Alternative 1, is documented in an Action Memorandum released by the agency. It is based on extensive research, including human health and ecological risk assessments, and aligns with the majority of public comments received on the EE/CA alternatives.
The selection was also approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.
Monitored Natural Recovery avoids disturbing legacy contaminants from past U.S. Department of Energy projects in the river system, provides the best balance with respect to effectiveness and implementation, and is the most cost-effective option for consumers of TVA power.
The release said the Action Memorandum has been posted to the Administrative Record for the Kingston Ash Recovery Project at www.tva.com/kingston. It also is available for review at the Kingston and Harriman public libraries.
TVA has encouraged the public to review and comment on the Action Memorandum from Nov. 9 through Dec. 8. Pertinent comments and their responses will be included in a Responsiveness Summary document and placed in the Administrative Record.
The Tennessee Valley Authority is a corporation owned by the U.S. government, and it provides electricity for nine million people in parts of seven southeastern states. TVA also provides flood control, navigation and land management for the Tennessee River system and assists utilities and state and local governments with economic development.
