Watts Bar

[RADBASTARD]

Dream tarheel, and yet dumb ass's keep going.
I guess they figure because its a s/g replacement they will be begging to get in.Then when they get there they wise up and leave.

If no one went the money well have to come up

[Mike McFarlin]

Some will never catch on!

[mda]

Went there and left there

[tigger]

We kept waiting to see what "art" would show up on these generators, after Snoopy was on SQNs SG. The first three were clean and we thought the "any one caught would be terminated" threat worked, but the last SG to leave had all the Sponge Bob Square Pants characters and the Nukeworker.com guy. Never under estimate a nuke worker. ALARA??!! It was a matter of Nuke worker pride!!!!  Outage on schedule.

Actually there were a couple little drawings on the first generators to come out. A NY yankees symbol on the first one,  USA on the second, and there was something else on the 3rd, but don't remember what it was. They were at the top of them. Not very big, but still there.

[ageoldtech]

number four S/G had the Local 48 on the side "Pipe Fitters"

[Marlin]

I just heard heard on the radio that a school near Watts Bar is sending its students home early due to a problem at the power plant. Does not sound like an emergancy as they are sending them home in an hour. Anyone there got a 411.

[Marlin]

TVA responded to the radio station. There was a coolant leak earlier with no release of radioactive material. It seems the school over reacted. I am a little concerned that if the school thought there was a problem they would take thier time and schedule an evacuation some time after an incident. It sounds like TVA needs to do a little local training.

[graham]

Have read reports that schools in area have been evaced!

[graham]

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_5160021,00.html

Meigs schools dismiss after Watts Bar alert
By News Sentinel staff
November 21, 2006

The Meigs County school system is dismissing students around 9 a.m. this morning due to an issue at the Watts Bar nuclear plant, although TVA said the issue has been resolved.
TVA declared an "unusual event" at 6:15 a.m., when a water leak in the plant's cooling system was suspected.

That's standard procedure in the event of a suspected leak, spokesman Gil Francis said, and includes notifying the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

"The investigation showed there was no water leakage and, therefore, the (unusual) event was canceled," Francis said.

The alert was canceled at 7:35 a.m.

Meigs County has about 1,800 students, according to the state Department of Education, and Director of Schools Robert Greene said many parents were keeping their children out of classes after hearing of the TVA alert over police scanners.

School officials also had begun telling parents that school was out of session as they arrived at schools, Greene said.

Also, today is the last day of classes before Thanksgiving break.

"Attendance is always low that day, and we had several parents call (concerned about Watts Bar)," Greene said. "Rather than deal with a half-empty school all day we just went ahead and called school off."

He emphasized that if the TVA warning had occurred later during the school day, officials would have waited to see how serious the matter was before calling off classes.

Greene said teachers likely will go home at lunchtime today.

More details as they develop online and in Wednesday's News Sentinel.

[Roll Tide]

TVA press release:

  TVA Cancels Notification of Unusual Event at Watts BarTVA today cancelled a notification of unusual event at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant, the least serious of four levels of nuclear-plant event classifications, after determining there was no leakage of water from the plant's coolant system.

TVA declared the event at 6:15 a.m. EST when there was an indication of a possible leakage greater than guidelines allow. After an investigation determined there was no water leakage, the unusual event was cancelled at 7:35 a.m.

"There was never any danger to the health and safety of employees or the public," says Watts Bar Vice President Mike Skaggs. "We declared the unusual event and notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission because there was an initial indication of water leakage. After a thorough investigation, we cancelled the event."

Director of Meigs County Schools Robert Greene decided to dismiss classes for the day, saying that some parents were keeping their children out of school after hearing about the Watts Bar event. Greene said that attendance is always low on the day before the Thanksgiving break, so he decided to call off classes.

The declaration of an unusual event at a nuclear plant does not require a relocation or dismissal of school classes, according to emergency procedures. Because of strict federal laws, any event out of the ordinary is reported to federal, state and local authorities.

Watts Bar Unit 1 has been shut down since September for a planned refueling and maintenance outage and was not in operation. The second unit at Watts Bar is unfinished.


Apparently there was concern about leakage >10gpm, but it was later concluded to not be a problem. Inventory balance miscalculation on vacuum fill due to the new S/Gs? Surely more details will follow.

[Rennhack]

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_5160021,00.html

[Marlin]

"Is there a problem at WATTS BAR NUKE PLANT" from Nuke News has been merged into Talk about Watts Bar forum.

[Roll Tide]

Here is a link for the Reuters report (some of the other links are notoriously short-lived). The details are the same.

http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2006-11-21T190634Z_01_N21412477_RTRUKOC_0_US-UTILITIES-TVA-WATTSBAR.xml&WTmodLoc=USNewsHome_C2_domesticNews-3

For some bonus color commentary: apparently Meigs County mentioned it over the Sheriff's radio system. Whodathunk that many local rednecks would have a police scanner?   
Apparently, the low attendance led the school district to just give up having school on that day.

[Fermi2]

http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event-status/event/en.html

[Shirewolf]

Does anyone know what company provides security at Watts Bar?  Also a contact number for their security office? I'd be interested in if they are hiring.  Thanks for any assistance.

[LIMITED QUANITY]

Yeah, TVA uses Pinkerton.  I'm sure they have a 800 number or you can ask someone in security @ 423-365-8544.

[Limited Quanity]

Hey Dream Tarheel.  I hear your coming back to the Bar soon.  Want alittle of the Unit Two startup juice!$$

["E"]

What's the official word on Unit2 ?

[Roll Tide]

Don't expect any official word on Unit 2 until the mid-summer TVA Board of Directors meeting. With good news on Browns Ferry 1 Restart and a positive report on current WBN 2 status, there should be a really good announcement.

[Roll Tide]

TVA will hold a public open house Tuesday, April 17, at Rhea County High School on the draft environmental review for the possible completion of Unit 2 at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant near Spring City, Tenn.
 
"TVA is considering completing Unit 2 at Watts Bar to meet the growing need for power in the Tennessee Valley, and we are updating previous environmental reviews completed for the Watts Bar plant," says TVA Vice President of Nuclear Generation Development Jack Bailey. "Along with a detailed engineering and feasibility study currently under way, the environmental review will provide information we need on the possible completion of Unit 2."

The open house will be from 4:30-8 p.m. EDT in the school gym at 405 Pierce Rd. in Evensville.

If you live in the area, you should consider attending. Many times these events will draw out-of-the-region protesters. It says a lot when 90+% of the locals at the meeting are pro-nuke; it is a big reason Bellefonte has a future.

If the local pro-nukes do not show, the traveling circus will have the only say in the meeting.

(Since I live outside the 50-mile zone, I will not be attending. I think that would be as wrong as the protesters from out of state attending. I would like to attend the next Atlanta or MD meeting on the subject as a resident of the region.)

[Limited Quanity]

From the Knoxville News Sentinel:

Watts Bar's safety record deserves applause
April 17, 2007


The Tennessee Valley Authority clearly is doing something right at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant.
Officials with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees TVA's three nuclear plants, said Watts Bar's performance for 2006 was classified as green. That means any safety problems found during the NRC's inspections were of low significance.


 

Watts Bar is in Spring City, Tenn., and it has one operating pressurized-water reactor. Construction on the Unit 2 reactor at Watts Bar was halted in 1985, and TVA is considering whether to complete it.

So the utility is conducting a detailed study to determine what the project will cost. TVA already has prepared a report evaluating potential environmental impacts under the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act.

The report shows that TVA considers completing the reactor preferable, but its final decision will not be made until the cost study is complete.

We're pleased to see that TVA has made this report easily accessible to the public. Copies are available online and in area libraries.

In addition, TVA will hold an open house from 4:30 to 8 p.m. today at Rhea County High School in Evensville, Tenn. Public comments also may be submitted online and by mail.

The economic benefits identified by the study would include a five-year construction project that would employ as many as 3,000 workers. TVA estimates the project would draw 880 workers to the area, and about two-thirds of those workers would live in Rhea or Meigs counties.

About 150 permanent workers would be added to the plant after the project is completed.

Another consideration, however, is the impact on the local school systems of the estimated 660 children those workers would bring.

Some 434 of those students would be in Rhea and Meigs counties, and some Rhea County schools already are overcrowded.

TVA, however, says it would offset some of these anticipated problems with supplemental funding from the payments that TVA makes in lieu of taxes.

TVA appears to be well on the road to completing Unit 2 at Watts Bar, and we applaud its safety record as well as its openness.

[Limited Quanity]

Also from the Knoxville paper:

TVA open to views from both sides on Watts Bar
By ANDREW EDER, edera@knews.com
April 18, 2007


EVENSVILLE, Tenn. - Both poles of the debate over nuclear power were represented at a public meeting Tuesday on the potential completion of the Unit 2 reactor at TVA's Watts Bar Nuclear Plant.
Tom Markham and M.B. Daniell drove up from Chattanooga to ask questions and register their support for the project.


 

"We're two old friends who feel like nuclear power is the way of the future," Markham said.

"It seems to me like almost anything you read is negative, and we feel positive about it," Daniell said.

On the other side of the nuclear divide, a former TVA whistleblower and a representative from the Sierra Club came to the gymnasium at Rhea County High School to express their dismay over the resurgence in TVA's nuclear program. About 30 area residents attended the public meeting.

"It looks like a nuclear power fair to me instead of a public comment period," said Ann Harris, a former worker at Watts Bar who fought numerous legal battles with TVA after raising safety concerns at the nuclear plant.

TVA is considering finishing Watts Bar 2 to help meet the expected growth in demand for power in the Tennessee Valley. Tuesday's meeting was an "open house" where the public could ask questions of TVA staffers and submit comments about an environmental report that TVA drafted as part of a federal requirement.

TVA and its contractors are conducting a separate study to determine the cost and scheduling of finishing Watts Bar 2.

Jack Bailey, TVA's vice president of nuclear generation development, said the study is about 60 percent complete and should be ready for the TVA board to review at its August meeting.

"In general, we have not seen any big issues that we had not anticipated," Bailey said.

TVA is waiting for the results of the cost and scheduling study to make a recommendation on Watts Bar 2, although the environmental report states that completing the reactor is TVA's preferred course of action.

The federal utility has an existing license to build the reactor, but it would need to apply for another license to operate it. Bailey said TVA has been working with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees TVA's three nuclear plants, to develop a "successful path to licensing."

The Unit 1 reactor at TVA's Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in Alabama is scheduled to come online next month after a five-year, $1.8 billion restart effort. Bailey said the completion of Watts Bar 2 would be a comparable process to Browns Ferry 1, although the cost would likely be higher because of escalating prices.

Construction began on Watts Bar Nuclear Plant in 1973, but Watts Bar 1 wasn't completed until 1996 at a cost of $6.9 billion. In 2001, TVA wrote off $1.7 billion in costs related to Watts Bar 2.
__

There is still quite a bit of activity but the system walkdowns are for the most part just about over.  The atmosphere is very upbeat about the go ahead for start up.  The PM told us in a midshift brief that it will be a no brainer.  Many don't want to think about having that second unit on line since we have been a single unit plant the last 10 yrs.  The way I see it, double the fun, double the money$ 

[CountryHeavenTN]

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   

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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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Meanwhile back at the ranch......

[LaFeet]

Build it and we will come

[Limited Quanity]

Build it and we will come

They build it and I'll masslinn it!