TVA aggressively expanding its nuclear capacity

WASHINGTON - The Tennessee Valley Authority is bracing for competition in the electric power market, TVA board member Bill Baxter said Monday, and is aggressively working to expand its nuclear generating capacity at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant near Athens.

The federal agency is also evaluating whether to complete the unfinished Bellefonte Nuclear Plant near Scottsboro using "next generation'' nuclear technology, he said.

Baxter gave that report to North Alabama political and business leaders during their annual Washington trip to lobby for federal programs important to the area.

Nuclear power, Baxter said, can be cheaper and is far cleaner than coal-fired plants, which provide 60 percent of TVA's electricity in the seven-state TVA region.

Cheaper power will position Huntsville and the rest of the Southeast to be more competitive in economic development, he said. The agency is doing all it can now to reduce its debt and run the utility like a business before deregulation opens the gates to other power suppliers. "When that day comes, TVA will have to be ready to earn its business,'' he said.

Baxter was among speakers addressing the 145-member local delegation led by the Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce.

Other issues on the lobbying table this week are road projects, including Huntsville's Southern Bypass and Decatur's outer loop, NASA and defense programs managed in Huntsville, and efforts to protect Redstone Arsenal in the next round of military base closings.

TVA is preparing for deregulation by shaving costs through work-force reductions, trimming waste and getting more efficient equipment, Baxter said. The utility also hopes to get more involved with loans, business incubator programs and other incentives to help large customers "close that deal,'' he said.

Baxter said he fully expects a time when TVA will no longer be a monopoly in the wholesale electrical market. Huntsville Utilities is the fourth-largest customer of TVA's more than 100 municipal distributors and co-ops and 62 "direct serve'' industrial clients, he said.

Restarting a long-idled reactor at Browns Ferry is a top priority, he said.

"We're strong supporters of nuclear at TVA,'' Baxter said. The agency is spending $1.8 billion to restart the Unit 1 reactor at Browns Ferry. Down since 1985, Unit 1 will add 1,250 megawatts of electricity to the TVA power grid when operational in mid-2007, he said.

Baxter said the utility is also workin with a consortium of energy companies looking into the feasibility of bringing the mothballed Bellefonte plant on line using the latest in nuclear technology. Several concepts are being looked at, including an "advanced boiling water'' concept that has proved successful in Japan, he said.

"We are strongly suggesting to these consortiums that Bellefonte would be an excellent site for next generation nuclear technology,'' Baxter said. Factors favoring the 1,500-acre Bellefonte complex include the "transmission infrastructure'' already in place there, the support from the surrounding community, and the fact it's already a permitted site for a nuclear plant, he said.

TVA began building Bellefonte in the early 1970s. More than $4 billion was spent before work was halted in 1988 because of rising costs and decreasing demand for power.

TVA's debt load has frequently been criticized by members of Congress and President Bush's Office of Management and Budget. Baxter said Monday the utility added $300 million to its budget this year to accelerate paying off that debt.

The debt has decreased from $28 billion in 1997 to $23.3 billion today. TVA's plan calls for another $5 billion in debt reduction by the decade's end.