Wednesday, January 17, 2024

TVA Troubles

According to this report, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) may have difficulties supplying enough electricity to its customers this winter:

https://www.zerohedge.com/weather/more-grid-trouble-tennessee-valley-authority-asks-customers-conserve-power-amid-cold-blast

In a former life, I worked as a contractor for TVA nuclear on two occasions, both times at Browns Ferry.

It's not common knowledge, but TVA had plans for 17 reactors back in the glory days of nuclear energy. But most either got cancelled or never got off the drawing board:

https://www.nytimes.com/1984/07/17/business/tva-set-to-scrap-4-reactors.html

True, the ones they DID build had their problems, but if TVA had commissioned more successful nukes, they wouldn't be in a bind now that coal and hydro are dwindling as a share of the power mix.

Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, "It might have been." ― Kurt Vonnegut

You could say that about the entire US nuclear industry.

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