Official announcement of the start up of Unit 2 is suppose to come somtime in August.
TVA plans to finish Watts Bar Unit 2 reactor
By: Max Hackett
Source: The Herald-News
04-22-2007
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At a sparsely attended open house meeting at Rhea County High school Tuesday evening, TVA presented a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed completion of Watts Bar Nuclear Unit 2 for public comment.
“I was expecting more public input than what I saw,” said Rhea County Executive Billy Ray Patton.
The open house, held in the school’s gymnasium from 4:30 p.m. until 8 p.m., offered information broken down from the DSEIS into categories ranging from water quality to the impact on housing and community services. The meeting resulted in three written comments and one comment recorded by a court reporter contracted by TVA, according to TVA media spokesman Terry Johnson. Thirty Rhea County residents, 12 of them elected officials, attended the open house, Johnson said.
The report concludes that TVA’s preferred alternative is the completion of WBN Unit 2.
The study is a supplement to the original 1972 final environmental statement and subsequent WBN-related environmental reviews. It updates the analysis of potential environmental impacts resulting from construction, operation and maintenance of WBN Unit 2. The unit would be completed as originally designed, alongside its sister unit, WBN Unit 1, which has been operating since 1996.
The 132-page report indicates that TVA is proposing to complete Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Unit 2 as originally designed except for modifications consistent with those made to Unit 1. A power analysis presented in the report shows how completion of WBN Unit 2 would help meet expected demands for increased baseload power, reduce fossil plant emissions and potentially lower the cost of power to TVA’s customers.
In addition to the environmental review, a detailed, scoping, estimating and planning study is underway. TVA will use information from the DSEP and the Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Study “to make an informed decision about whether to complete construction of and to operate WBN Unit 2,” according to the report.
TVA holds a valid construction permit for the completion of WBN Unit 2 from the Nuclear Regulatory Agency. An announcement of a decision on the completion and operation of WBN Unit 2 is expected in August.
Only minimal new construction is proposed, and no expansion of the existing site footprint would be required, according to the study.
WBN Unit 2 was about 80 percent complete when construction work halted in 1985. Since that time, a substantial amount of equipment and components have been removed to support WBN Unit 1 and Sequoyah Nuclear Plant Units 1 and 2. As a result, WBN Unit 2 is now considered approximately 60 percent complete.
WBN Unit 2 is designed as a twin plant to the operating Unit 1 and would be completed and operated the same as Unit 1. TVA estimates completion of UNIT 2 would cost between $2 and $3 billion.
TVA is expected to designate certain counties, primarily Rhea County, as impacted by the construction. The impacted counties would then become eligible for a supplemental allocation from TVA’s tax equivalent payment as provided for in the Tennessee Tax Code. The additional funds could be used by counties to address impacts on county services.
“That money was very important to us during the construction of Unit 1, and we will be looking at how it might play into our funding for school expansion in particular,” Patton said.
As part of the DSEP, TVA is conducting a labor study of the potential construction workforce. That information will be provided to impacted counties to help with local planning to accommodate the anticipated temporary population growth.
The draft report indicates that population would increase due to an influx of workers. At peak construction employment, the total employment in construction and design is projected to be as high as 3,000. For the purposes of the study, TVA adopted a more conservative estimate, assuming the peak on-site workforce would be 2,200.
Based on previous experience at the site, the report assumes that 40 percent, or 880 workers, would move into the area. The remaining 60 percent of workers would be either local residents or would commute from the surrounding area, including Chattanooga and Knoxville.
Of the 880 workers expected to move into the area, approximately 600 are anticipated to move into Rhea and Meigs counties, with the majority of those expected to move into Rhea County.
The report suggests that much of the income received by these workers would be spent in the area, especially by those who move families into the area and those who are already residents.
“This would increase income of businesses in the area, especially those oriented directly to consumers, and could lead to a small temporary increase in employment,” the study says.
The report also indicates “some increase in temporary housing needs, including apartments and facilities for trailers and RVs.”
An estimated 434 school age children are expected to move into Rhea and Meigs counties during construction, with the majority expected to be settled in Rhea County. The study projects that the result would be an increase in “the overcrowding already being experienced” in local schools.
A mitigating action would be the identification of Rhea County as an impact area under the existing state tax code.
The formula dictated by Tennessee law allocates 3 percent of TVA in lieu of tax payments made to the state to “impacted local governing areas that are experiencing TVA construction activity on facilities to produce electric power.” TVA made in lieu of tax payments to the state of $221,017,704 in 2006. The potential additional impact money that could be shared by all governing areas designated by TVA in 2006 was $6,630,530 according to the formula set forth in the code. The impact money would be paid during construction and for three years following its completion.
“I’ve heard them anticipate the construction of Unit 2 to be about a five-year project,” Patton said. “I was only half-kidding when I told them that we’d like to see it drag on for 20 years if possible. The economic impact on Rhea County will be significant if it’s anything like the construction of Unit 1.”
The DSEIS presented for comment Tuesday evening also includes assessments of the potential effects on other local resources.
Other results from the construction of WBN Unit 2 are said to be additional road traffic at peak times, as well as noticeable impacts on community services such as medical facilities and public safety, according to the draft report.
The study says “increased risk in the area of nuclear plant safety and security from UNIT 2 operation would be extremely low.”
No impact on groundwater quality, wetlands, floodplains, protected plant and animal species, or the five natural areas within five miles of WBN, including the Chickamauga State Mussel Sanctuary, is projected.
The potential environmental effect on surface water quality, climatology and meteorology, radiological effects and waste, and spent fuel transportation and storage are described as “insignificant.”
TVA’s 45-day public comment period on the DSEIS continues until May 14. Comments can be submitted through TVA’s website at
www.tva.gov/environment/reports/wattsbar2, by e-mail to tvawattsbr2@tva.com, by fax to 865-632-3451, or by surface mail to Ruth Horton, TVA NEPA Services, 400 West Summit hill Drive (WT-11D), Knoxville, TN 37902.
The final SEIS will be issued June 22.
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