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.