Everything about The Watts Bar Nuclear Generating Station totally explained
The
Watts Bar Nuclear Generating Station is a
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
nuclear reactor used for
electric power generation and
tritium production for
nuclear weapons. It is located on a 1,770 acre (7.2 km²) site in
Rhea County, Tennessee near
Spring City, between the cities of
Chattanooga and
Knoxville. Watts Bar Unit 1 was the last civilian reactor to come on-line in the United States. Watts Bar supplies enough electricity for about 250,000 households in the
Tennessee Valley.
This plant has one
Westinghouse pressurized water reactor, one of two reactor units whose construction commenced in
1973. Unit 1 was completed in
1996, and has a winter net dependable generating capacity of 1,167 megawatts.
Unit 2 was about 80% complete when its construction was stopped in 1988. The official reason given for halting construction was a decrease in demand for electricity, but the decision was hailed as a victory by
anti-nuclear activists. Unit 2 remains partly completed (several of its parts being
cannibalized for use on other TVA units), but on August 1, 2007 the TVA Board approved completion of the unit. Construction resumed on October 15, 2007, with the reactor expected to begin operation in 2013.
Tritium production
The
Nuclear Regulatory Commission operating license for Watts Bar was modified in September 2002 to allow TVA to
irradiate tritium-producing burnable absorber rods at Watts Bar to produce
tritium for the
U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's)
National Nuclear Security Administration. The Watts Bar license amendment currently permits TVA to install up to 240 tritium-producing rods in Watts Bar Unit 1. Planned future license amendments would allow TVA to irradiate up to approximately 2,000 tritium-producing rods in the Watts Bar reactor.
TVA began irradiating tritium-producing rods at Watts Bar Unit 1 in the fall of 2003. TVA removed these rods from the reactor in the spring of 2005. DOE successfully shipped them to its tritium-extraction facility at
Savannah River Site in
South Carolina. DOE reimburses TVA for the cost of providing the irradiation services, and also pays TVA a fee for each tritium-producing rod that's irradiated.
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