It's baa-ack.. Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant Unit 1 comes back to life (mothballed in 1985)

By Trevor Stokes & Dennis Sherer
Staff Writers

http://www.timesdaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

America's nuclear energy program is being revived at the site of one of its worst accidents.- All signs from regulators and operators point to a startup within days of the Tennessee Valley Authority's Unit 1 reactor at Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant near Athens, culminating a five-year, $1.8 billion restoration.

Mothballed since 1985, TVA's oldest reactor was the scene of a major fire sparked by a candle three decades

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BROWNS FERRY TIMELINE

# 1967: Browns Ferry construction begins.
# Aug. 1, 1974: Unit 1 opened for commercial operation.
# March 22, 1975: Cables in Unit 1 control room caught fire after workers used candles to examine air leaks. The fire spread and damaged Unit 1.
# March 1985: Tennessee Valley Authority shuts down all three reactors "to address management and operational concerns."
# May 1991: TVA restarted Unit 2.
# November 1995: TVA restarted Unit 3.
# May 2002: TVA board approved to restart Unit 1.
# April 28, 2007: Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials complete Unit 1 inspection; approximately "1,600 individual activities" needed to be done with an estimated completion time of 10 days.
# May 2, 2007: Inspectors report "TVA has adequately prepared Browns Ferry for a return to three-unit operation."
# End of May 2007: Officials expect Unit 1 will restart, dependent on NRC's approval.
# Mid-July 2007: Officials expect Unit 1 will be working at full capacity, if no operational problems arise.
# 2033: NRC's license for TVA to operate Unit 1 will expire.

They are starting to hire in workers for a 6 - 8 year job, completing Unit 2 and bringing it online.

Sorry, no link: I live 8 miles from the plant, and know people going to work out there..

miles from the Alabama-Tennessee state line, just west of I-65, on the north bank of the Tennessee River. Huntsville is about 30 miles east and Florence about 25 miles west. Nashville less than 100 miles north.

In short, in the heart of the Tennessee Valley, surrounded by cotton fields and exurbs of the Huntsville Metro aerospace/computer industry mecca.

The fire was started by some "old school" electrician when he decided to smoke test a junction box's penetrations and used a candle to look for the tightness of the "monkey crap" stuffing the junction.

This isn't the big news re: TVA and nuclear plants: Bellafonte is a two unit system that was stopped about 98% completed and there is increased interest in completing the plants, supposedly by a consortium of private power corporations.

TVA has the lowest power in the country -- the average bill in Huntsville or Athens or Nashville is about 70% of what people pay in Birmingham where Southern Power rules. Besides the nuke plants, TVA supplies via hydro on the river's dams and coal plants as well.

I can picture panicked motorists bumper to bumper on 72.