TVA plans deployment of small modular reactors at abandoned Bellefonte nuclear facility to support industrial and data center power needs

The Tennessee Valley Authority is in fast-paced negotiations to build advanced small modular reactors at the unfinished Bellefonte nuclear plant in Alabama, interim CEO Mike Skaggs said at a nuclear industry conference in Knoxville on Wednesday.

The nation's largest public power provider is working with North Carolina-based GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy to build small reactors at Bellefonte in addition to the Clinch River Nuclear Site in Oak Ridge. The GE design is a 300-megawatt next-generation boiling water reactor, modeled on the design TVA operates at the Browns Ferry plant in Alabama.

TVA is meeting frequently with Japanese banks to secure funding for the projects. The Trump administration negotiated a $40 billion trade deal between Japan and the U.S. involving major Japanese investment in advanced reactors.

"I can't say it's going to be done, but I can tell you that the work that's going on is fast. It's a hot pace. There's a ton of energy associated with it," Skaggs told attendees at the Knoxville Convention Center. "These energy contracts that we're working through are some of the biggest energy contracts. These are very complex negotiations that we're working through. But my feeling is that the probability of this happening is pretty good."

The federal utility halted work on the Bellefonte plant in 1988 after spending 14 years and billions of dollars. Building advanced reactors at unfinished nuclear plants would provide a second life to sites that have stood for decades as reminders of TVA's overestimated power demand predictions in the 1970s and 80s. TVA did not finish 10 of the 17 large-scale nuclear reactors it originally planned.

TVA is also in discussions with Houston-based Entra1 Energy to build small modular reactors near its unfinished nuclear site in Hartsville, Tennessee, located approximately 50 miles northeast of Nashville in Trousdale County. TVA imploded an unused cooling tower at that site last year.

TVA is in a unique position amid the nationwide revival of nuclear investments, operating as a self-funded agency of the U.S. government through electricity sales to more than 10 million people across the South. The utility already operates one of the largest nuclear programs in the U.S. across three traditional plants in Tennessee and Alabama.

Last year, TVA became the first utility in the U.S. to apply for a construction permit for a small modular reactor, a permit it could receive by the end of the year as the Trump administration accelerates the approval process. The technology is viewed as essential for meeting rising power demand driven by data centers.

TVA's nuclear strategy, promoted by Skaggs since his return to lead the agency, rests on four principles. First, funding for the reactors must come from outside TVA, which cannot fund the projects under a $30 billion debt limit set by Congress in 1979. Second, companies that will purchase the electricity generated by new reactors must be part of the development deals, including as funding partners—an arrangement TVA has established with Google and California-based reactor developer Kairos Power. Third, TVA must minimize risks to itself and its customers. Fourth, TVA will operate the new reactors as a licensee.

"If we're going to operate these plants, we need to make sure that they're safe and they're reliable, and they're appropriate for the Tennessee Valley, and that they're going to be just like the existing plants we have," Skaggs said. "They're going to be something that we can be proud about."

TVA's existing nuclear plants supply approximately 40 percent of its generated electricity. As the power supplier to virtually the entire state of Tennessee, TVA serves as a partner for nuclear companies and federal agencies in Oak Ridge, the original Manhattan Project site.