Watts Bar Nuclear Generating Station

F1

Active reactors ( gross ):

Reactors under construction ( gross ):

The nuclear power plant Watts Bar is as yet a reactor to produce electricity and tritium production for nuclear weapons. Named the reactor after an infamous sandbank at the island Watts. She disappeared with the damming of the Tennessee to Watts Bar Reservoir.

The entire complex is one of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA ). It covers an area of ​​7.2 km2 in the city of Spring City in Rhea County, Tennessee. This town is situated between the cities of Chattanooga (Tennessee ) and Knoxville (Tennessee). The reactor Watts Bar 1 was the most recent civilian reactor in the USA, who received commercial operation. Watts Bar produces electricity for about 250,000 residents of the Tennessee Valley.

The building of reactor 1 started in 1973. Originally two reactors were planned. The reactor 1 was completed in 1996, the project suffered numerous delays and is expected to go about eight billion dollars have cost.

The construction of Watts Bar 2 began in late 1972 and was finished at about 60-80 % when the construction was stopped in 1988. The official reason for the decreasing demand for electricity has been specified. The decision was hailed by the anti-nuclear activists as a victory. The reactor 2 was subsequently used as spare parts for other plants in the TVA.

On 1 August 2006, the TVA decided to continue building the reactor. The continued construction began on 15 October 2007 under the direction of the Bechtel Corporation. As of 2015, electricity will be fed into the grid. The planned costs are 4 to 4.5 billion U.S. dollars. Siemens was awarded the contract to overhaul and modernize the generator as well as to provide a number of new turbines and other parts.

The reactor 1 is a generator of Westinghouse.

Tritium production

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC ) has extended the license for Watts Bar in September 2002, so that the TVA may use special fuel for the production of tritium. The tritium was produced for the Department of Energy (DOE ) National Nuclear Security Department. The license allows the use of up to 240 of these fuel rods. It is planned to extend the license, so that up to 2304 fuel rods in Watts Bar -1 can be used.

The TVA began with the exposure of the rods in October 2003., The rods were removed in the spring of 2005. The DOE then drove the bars for tritium extraction to South Carolina to Savannah River Site. The TVA gets the cost of irradiation replaced and a bonus for each fuel rod. The contract has a term of 30 years and shall also apply to the Sequoyah Nuclear Plant. It is a production of 1.5 and 3 kg tritium expected. TVA will get it about ten million dollars. The core problem - a civilian facility is used for military purposes - was also detected, but set aside because of other additional costs incurred for a military reactor.

Problems

The start of the nuclear program of TVA was fraught with considerable problems. On 27 October 1986 Fortune magazine reported that critical reports regarding the safety in Watts Bar were suppressed. It was about violations of basic safety precautions. So important welds had not been X-rayed for cost reasons. Even were engineers from TVA, the problems found, transferred to other posts. Against the organizer of the TVA 's nuclear program, the former Admiral Steven White, was determined. The existing five TVA reactors had to be shut down because of structural problems and problems with the educational level of employees. In Watts Bar alone, more than 1,700 problems were identified.

Data of the reactor units

The Watts Bar nuclear power plant has a total of two blocks:

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