Resurrecting an Old Nuclear Plant in Alabama

Nuclear Development has an agreement to purchase a nuclear plant from TVA for $111 million.

PHOTO COURTESY TVA

In June, Nuclear Development LLC tapped SNC-Lavalin to complete work on at least one nuclear unit at the partially completed Bellefonte nuclear plant in Alabama. Nuclear Development has a contract to purchase the reactor from the Tennessee Valley Authority for $111 million after TVA determined it no longer needed the plant, which has two unfinished 1,256-MW reactors. TVA stopped construction on the plant in 1988, when work on the Babcock and Wilcox pressurized water reactor was about 90% complete. Since then, some of the reactor’s components have been removed, leaving the unit at closer to 55% complete. Company owner Franklin Haney expects it will cost about $13 billion to finish construction of the PWR unit and plans to ask for a federal loan guarantee. SNC-Lavalin’s engineering work will include design changes to ensure systems and components meet all regulatory requirements. It will also involve replacing missing, obsolete and degraded equipment, and ensuring the plant will operate reliably and at a high capacity factor, according to an SNC-Lavalin spokeswoman.

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Pam Radtke Russell is a New Orleans-based journalist with more than a decade covering energy, environment and climate for ENR, Platts, CQ Roll Call in Washington D.C. and the Times-Picayune in New Orleans.

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