First New US Nuclear Reactor In 20 Years Starts Up

[OJsDad]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/first-new-us-nuclear-reactor-in-20-years-enters-operation/ar-AAj9te1?li=AA4ZnC&ocid=spartanntp

The United States's first new nuclear generator in 20 years has entered commercial operation in Tennessee.

The Tennessee Valley Authority's 1,150-megawatt Watts Bar 2 reactor is officially online and producing electricity for to 650,000 homes and businesses, the company announced Wednesday.

Watts Bar 2 is the 100th nuclear reactor to operate in the United States, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute, and the first new reactor to open in 20 years.

The reactor formally connected to the grid in June, but the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) said Wednesday that it underwent testing and a slow ratcheting up of power before today.

With Watts Bar 2, the TVA has six nuclear units across its fleet.

"TVA's mission is to make life better in the valley by providing reliable, low-cost energy, protecting our area's natural resources and working to attract business and growth - all priorities simultaneously supported by the completion of Watts Bar Unit 2," TVA President and CEO Bill Johnson said in a statement.
"Watts Bar Unit 2 is a key part of our commitment to produce cleaner energy without sacrificing the reliability and low cost that draws both industry and residents to our area."

The reactor is decades in the making.

Construction on the reactor began in 1973 but was put on hold in 1985. Officials restarted work on the project in 2007, and it was finally completed last year at a cost of $4.7 billion. It is the first reactor to meet stronger standards approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission after the Fukushima disaster in Japan in 2011.
Four other nuclear reactors are under construction in the United States, and the federal Energy Information Administration expects them to go online within the next four years.

[JasonPratt]

Next, we're going to provide some Godawful number of acres here in my county to a windfarm which will be a blight on our land and useless around half the time and which will provide a small power surplus we don't need, as well as a lot of pork for various entities -- but at least it won't be creating super-poisonous material that will take longer than all of human history so far to partially go away.

Sigh. I miss the days when we mostly had waterfall power around here...

[JudgeDredd]

Wind farms are lovely 

[OJsDad]

I hope you joking JD.

[JudgeDredd]

Sorry - but no.

I'd take this


over this


Any day - and that's not even going into the legacy

I don't profess to be an expert on energy but I know there's a legacy to nuclear that, personally, I don't think is a price worth paying for cheap fuel.

I do of course understand everyone has their fav - but nuclear isn't mine.

[Sir Slash]

Why can't we have both? A Thermo Nuclear explosion can generate an awful lot of wind. Just saying.

[JasonPratt]

The wind farm does look aesthetically better, relative to the nuke plant, I'll give you that.  O0

[OJsDad]

Why can't we have both? A Thermo Nuclear explosion can generate an awful lot of wind. Just saying.

Farts produce a lot of wind also.  Just saying.   :D

[OJsDad]

The foot print of a wind farm is larger than you may think.  Not only do they have the ground they sit on, but each turbine needs a road going to it.  The turbines require a lot of maintenance, including oil changes. 

[Sir Slash]

And they kill birds. Obama just upped the number of raptors that can be killed in the pursuit of saving wildlife. 

[JasonPratt]

Bald eagles sometimes drift over here from the Reelfoot Lake nesting area in Lake County.

Not that I think that's a cogent argument against a windfarm. But wait until the first corpse is pulled off the ground and spread-eagled for the local papers. 

That said, hey, the owners of that land can do whatever they want -- if they want to sell it or rent it for a windfarm, great for them, glad they get the opportunity. My Dad's father got reimbursed nicely for the land on which some of Tampa's airport was built (not that we ever saw any of that; and the money was soon gone.) They won't be ruining much of our forest area (West TN tends to be steadily deforested), and should provide some useful power on occasion.  ::) And I don't have to live near the constant grinding of those huge fan blades.