A development company led by Tennessee businessman Franklin Haney has purchased TVA’s unfinished Bellefonte nuclear site.
Nuclear Development LLC prevailed at a Nov. 14 auction with a bid of $111 million – nearly three times the minimum bid. Nuclear Development LLC bought two unfinished reactors, several buildings and 1,600 acres of land on the Tennessee River, but plans to spend as much as $13 billion to make the nuclear generator operational.
According to a company statement, the project is expected to create as many as 4,000 temporary construction jobs and about 2,000 permanent jobs once the plant is running.
“The Bellefonte Nuclear Station will help transform communities across the region – many of which have been hit hard by the forced closure of coal power plants over the last decade,” Haney said in a statement. “This project will bring new life to the region by creating thousands of jobs while providing assured access to reliable, affordable, zero-emission energy.”
Nuclear Development spokesman Bud Cramer, a former congressman from Alabama, said the company still must complete financing for the project and transfer Bellefonte’s operating license from TVA through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
TVA began work at the Bellefonte site in the mid-1970s, but it never finished the two-reactor plant as growth in the demand for electricity waned. The utility said it has spent about $5 billion at the plant, parts of which have been removed and sold.
TVA said it will need little or, more likely, no new generation for at least 20 years, given the recent completion of the Watts Bar 2 reactor and a forecast of flat demand for that duration.