The Tennessee Valley Authority has added three years and $2 billion to its estimate to complete a partially built nuclear unit at its Watts Bar plant in Tennessee. TVA released the new estimates on April 5 after completing a seven-month project review triggered by rising costs and a slipping schedule. The unit now is set to come online in late 2015 at a cost of $4 billion to $4.5 billion. TVA originally said it would complete the 1,150-MW project by year's end at a cost of $2.5 billion. The unit is 70% finished.
"We're here to admit we were too aggressive in terms of time and cost," Tom Kilgore, TVA's CEO, said at an on-site briefing. He will ask TVA's board to approve the cost and schedule changes at its April 26 meeting. TVA spent $1.8 billion before shutting work down in 1985.