TVA WOES, WATTS BAR UNIT 2 PROBLEMS EQUAL PROBLEMS FOR BELLEFONTE

WATTS BAR UNIT 2 - Chattanooga Times Free Press article revealing. http://timesfreepress.com/news/2012/feb/04/delays-cost-overruns-hit-watts-bar-work/

"Despite the cost overruns, Kilgore said finishing Watts Bar Unit 2 still makes good economic sense. Watts Bar is still expected to be far cheaper than the $4.9 billion expense of finishing one of the reactors at Bellefonte, which TVA determined last year was still the best way to meet future power demand."

"We could spend up to $4.58 billion and still have an economical plant," Kilgore said of the Watts Bar Project. "I don't think the estimate is going to be anywhere near that, but we know this is going to be a good plant and that is why we continue to work on it."
 

  It appears the money raised in the sale of John Sevier Combined Cycle Gas plant and the pending Watts Bar 2 sale will not be utilized for Bellefonte but for the completion of Watts Bar 2. The two $30,000,000,000 questions: Can the TVA afford Bellefonte after Watts Bar's unit 2 construction? Will TVA Executives and the Board be honest with citizens about TVA's financial difficulties or continue with deceit?

Now the question: Can the TVA afford Bellefonte and Watts Bar without selling more assets and placing the TVA into an unrecoverable financial failure spin. Will the TVA Executives advise the Board to cancel the Bellefonte Project or extend the start date to 2016? Or will the TVA continue to treat the ratepayers as an ever-bearing "money tree?"

More revelations: In the article from the Times Free Press Saturday, "the [Watts Bar] project is probably only 70 percent complete." (TVA CEO Tom Kilgore)

Watts Bar Unit 2 public misinformation/information: Just how far along is Watts Bar 2? a) "Power News" via a TVA news release: "August 10, 2011-The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) on Monday said it would delay construction at Watts Bar Unit 2 and delay commercial operation of the facility from the previously anticipated late 2012 time frame into 2013...Work to complete the 1,180 MW generating unit resumed in 2007; the unit is currently about 86% complete." http://www.powermag.com/POWERnews/TVA-to-Delay-Watts-Bar-2-Startup-until-2013_3932.html b) Bechtel Corporation: "Unit 2 at Watts Bar in Spring City, Tennessee, was about two-thirds (66%) complete in 1988" http://www.bechtel.com/watts-bar-completion.html c) From Wikipedia: "TVA is currently working to finish the partially completed Unit 2. Unit 2 was about 80% complete when its construction was stopped in 1988. d) Rhea County Herald News: "Watts Bar Nuclear Unit 2 is on schedule to be completed by October 2012, according to a Tennessee Valley Authority spokesman...We're still on schedule to get it complete on time," TVA spokesman Terry Johnson said. "And we're still on budget too."" (Current information has shown this TVA report to be inaccurate information. ) http://rheaheraldnews.com/story/17178 e) Chattanooga Times Free Press article Feb. 4, 2012: "TVA has already spent more than $2.2 billion on finishing the new Watts Bar reactor since work was restarted there four years ago, and Kilgore said the project is probably only 70 percent complete." http://timesfreepress.com/news/2012/feb/04/delays-cost-overruns-hit-watts-bar-work/

Utilizing the figures in the article links provided we may conclude that the plant construction has gone in reverse according to TVA sources, contractors and news reports. (There was a construction rate loss of 16% due to inaccurate TVA information between Aug 2011 and this weekend.) In 4 years, if we utilize Bechtel and TVA's Chief Executive Officer's figures, the plant has progressed at a total construction rate of 4% or 1% per year. It is obvious there have been information inaccuracies and serious management problems within the TVA regarding the Watts Bar nuclear construction project over the past 4 years. At 1% rate of construction per year the plant will take 25-30 years to complete. (Relying on the TVA CEO's information of "probably only 70% complete.")

Once management problems are worked out, a real construction time would be 3-4 years for completion of 25-30% of the plant - construction completion in 2015-2016; financially, an additional 3.5 billion dollars in construction costs due to inflation and cost overruns would be a more realistic cost estimate.