POWER October 2010 - 8

TVA to Complete Bellefonte Unit 1
Thirty-six years after work first began at the 1,600-acre site housing
the Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant in Hollywood, Ala., the
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in August said it plans to invest
$248 million to maintain the option to complete the 1,260-MW
Unit 1 reactor. The announcement was made as the nation's largest
publically owned utility outlined a near-term strategy. Along
with designating $900 million for development of nuclear energy
in 2011, TVA said it would spend $635 million toward completion
of the Watts Bar 2 nuclear reactor, which is on schedule for
completion by late 2012. At the same time, the utility proposed to
replace 1,000 MW of coal-fired power generation, a mere 3% of its
combined capacity, with generation from nuclear and gas plants.
TVA had earlier in the summer said that completing one of two
unfinished units at Bellefonte would be preferred over building a
new Westinghouse AP1000 reactor there, or taking no action. In a
recently issued Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement
on the generation options associated with Bellefonte, the utility
said that four of five detailed studies to support a decision by the
TVA Board of Directors were complete. The board is expected to provide
final approval for the project next year, but TVA's integration
of the unit's capacity in future plans indicates that the board will
greenlight the project-and essentially commit to spending up to
$4.7 billion on the reactor. " Construction was halted several years
ago, but studies show new generation capacity will be needed by
2020, and nuclear energy provides power generation with no carbon
emissions, " the utility recently said.
Work began in 1974 on two 1,260-MW Babcock & Wilcox pressurized
water reactors (Units 1 and 2) at Bellefonte, but construction
was halted in 1988-Unit 1 when that reactor was 88%
complete and Unit 2 when it was 58% complete-in response to
decreased power demand. An estimated $2.5 billion had been
spent on the projects (Figure 1).
TVA has considered a variety of options for Bellefonte since then,
1. An old flame. The Tennessee Valley Authority in August said it
would spend $248 million in 2011 on next steps to complete the Bellefonte
Nuclear Power Plant, some 36 years after work began at the Hollywood,
Ala., site. Work began in 1974 but was halted in 1988-when
Unit 1 was 88% complete and Unit 2 was 58% complete-in response
to decreased power demand. An estimated $2.5 billion had been spent
on the projects. If Unit 1 is approved and built as planned, it would go
online in 2018. Source: TVA
including, in 2007, using it as the proposed site for two AP1000
reactors-the first in the U.S.-as part of a NuStart Energy Development
Consortium application for a new combined construction and
operating license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). In
2009, the NRC granted TVA's request to reinstate Bellefonte's original
construction permits so TVA could better evaluate the engineering
and economic feasibility of completing Units 1 and 2. Both units are
now being maintained in construction-deferred status.
Ashok Bhatnagar, TVA's senior vice president of nuclear operations,
told reporters in August that a two-year study analyzing whether it
would be more feasible to finish the reactor or build a new AP1000
had shown that completion of the original Babcock & Wilcox reactor
would be cheaper and faster. This reversal of a 2006 decision by
TVA was complicated by rising material and construction costs and
considerations of delays in certification of the AP1000, Bhatnagar
said. " If you completely risk evaluate the project, it is about $1
billion less to finish the existing unit versus the AP-1000 and there
is about a 12-month earlier completion with the existing reactor, "
The Chattanooga Times Free Press quoted the official as saying. The
utility will " maintain the option " of building the third-generation
reactor, but not in the next decade, he said.
If completed, Bellefonte Unit 1 could go online in 2018. But
TVA's new plans won't go smoothly: They are generating opposition
from anti-nuclear groups questioning the reactor's safety.
Critics say that the reactor was not maintained in accordance
with NRC regulations after TVA cancelled its construction permit
in 2006. TVA officials dispute that cannibalizing of the halted
projects, including the steam generators and other equipment,
jeopardized the project's reliability. Tests confirmed that Bellefonte
Unit 1 was ready to begin engineering, licensing, and
equipment procurement, representatives said.
Australia Fires Up Solar-Diesel Hybrid Plant
Australian company Horizon Power opened the country's first hybrid
solar-diesel power station in August near Marble Bar, and it is
readying another for operation in the neighboring town of Nullagine,
Western Australia-a region infamous for extremely hot temperatures.
The power stations are the first " high penetration, hybrid
solar-diesel systems " in the world, claims Horizon, adding that they
will " set new benchmarks for hybrid, stand-alone systems. "
The two projects will each essentially combine solar and diesel
generation with a flywheel energy storage system to generate
1,048 MWh, about 30% of annual power needs for both towns. The
company is working with development partners PowerCorp. Pty.
Ltd. and Sunpower Australia to build the new power stations at a
cost of A$30 million/US$27.8 million (A$4.9 million of which was
federally granted). Construction includes the installation of more
than 2,000 solar panels-1,008 in Marble Bar (Figure 2) and 900
in Nullagine-and incorporation of solar tracking systems that follow
the path of the sun in each town throughout the day.
According to Horizon Energy, Marble Bar's solar threshold is
estimated at 10 MW before the station would need to rely on diesel,
yet the plant is equipped with 140,000 tanks to supply about
a month's worth of diesel. Diesel was preferred over natural gas
because the latter would require building support infrastructure
to reach the town some hundred kilometers (km) from existing
routes. Solar was the natural choice to replace aging diesel power
plants: Marble Bar, on average, experiences 154 days every year
with temperatures over 100F.
8
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POWER | October 2010
http://www.powermag.com

POWER October 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER October 2010

Contents
POWER October 2010 - Cover1
POWER October 2010 - Cover2
POWER October 2010 - Contents
POWER October 2010 - 2
POWER October 2010 - 3
POWER October 2010 - 4
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