The Tennessee Valley Authority has abandoned plans to build two new nuclear reactors at its Bellefonte Nuclear Plant in Alabama. On Feb. 11, the TVA board agreed to notify the Atomic Safety Licensing Board that it would no longer pursue licenses for new Units 3 and 4. The federal power provider had applied, in 2007, to build two 1,100-megawatt AP1000 reactors at the Bellefonte site, home to two reactors that started construction in 1974 but were abandoned in 1988. TVA says its decision does not impact those earlier reactors, which remain in preservation status. TVA said it made the decision on the new reactors because electricity demand is flat or declining for the “foreseeable future”; further, it doesn’t need any more base-load power. Later this year, TVA is scheduled to bring on line another nuclear unit, the 1,150MW Watts Bar Unit 2, in Tennessee.