September 26, 1995
Web ready at: 1:30 p.m. EDT
From Reporter Loretta Lepore
KNOXVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) -- The only remaining nuclear power plant under construction in the United States, Watts Bar, has plagued the Tennessee Valley Authority with design flaws and safety concerns for more than two decades.
Now the TVA says the plant, located between Chattanooga and Knoxville, is ready to go. TVA authorities hope for a late October startup, but many residents say no way.
"This is our generator," a Watts Bar official explained
during a tour of the massive facility. "It can produce 1.2
billion watts of power, enough for 250 million homes."
But the plant's powerful potential and $7 billion price tag have so far brought the Tennessee Valley Authority only controversy and opposition.
"Construction has drug on for 23 years," one young woman yelled through a megaphone during a protest at Knoxville's downtown Market Square Mall. "... That's older than I am.
Opponents portray Watts Bar as a relic of a bygone nuclear age that's driving TVA into bankruptcy. Ann Harris, herself a TVA employee, predicts an inevitable shortfall. (108K AIFF sound or 108K WAV sound)
In 1979, Congress told the TVA it could borrow up to $30 billion from the federal treasury to operate its nuclear facilities. The agency is now up to $26 billion.
"The push to get that plant on line is economical and there
is no consideration for public health and safety," said
Mansour Guity, a former TVA nuclear engineer. Guity blew the
whistle on Watts Bar in 1985, just as the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission was about to license the plant. He claimed faulty
electrical wires were incapable of sending emergency messages
to and from the control room.
Ultimately, the TVA replaced 1.3 million feet of cable, according to plant manager Rick Purcell.
The TVA said concerns about the efficiency of the cooling tower, leaking valves, seismic supports, and an incomplete radiation monitoring system also are being addressed.
"We've just completed, over the last two years, 27,000 tests and over 400 inspections," Purcell said. Now TVA authorities say they're ready for the next step.
If approval is given for low-power tests at Watts Bar, fuel will be loaded into the reactor (1M QuickTime movie) and the result will be energy -- and nuclear contamination.
"Those of us in the valley and the national taxpayers are going to have to deal with cleaning up Watts Bar," warned Knoxville resident Steve Smith, voicing a concern expressed by many in the region. One older woman said, "Nuclear power is the dirtiest trick we can play on the future."
All parties agree that Watts Bar could conceivably be the last nuclear power plant to go on-line in the United States.
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