WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced that it will cooperate with an industry team led by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to conduct a detailed study of an Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) nuclear plant. DOE will fund half the cost of the $4.25 million, 10-month study, which will help TVA decide whether to build a facility on the site of its mothballed Bellefont nuclear plant, located near Hollywood, Ala.

The TVA is considering building a 2,600-megawatt, two-unit facility by the middle of the next decade. No ABWRs are currently operating in the United States, although three are operating in Japan.

The TVA is currently working to refurbish its 1,200-megawatt Browns Ferry Unit 1 nuclear plant, which it intends to restart in 2007. The plant, also located in Alabama, was shut down in 1985.

Publication date: 07/12/2004