TVA readjusts Bellefonte priorities

Monday, 19 March 2012

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is reducing the number of contractors working on its Bellefonte project as it resets its priorities following recent rescheduling at Watts Bar 2.

TVA formally decided in August 2011 to complete the partially built Bellefonte 1 reactor at Hollywood, Alabama, rather than building a brand new reactor at the site. Construction work is not scheduled to begin on the project until another TVA reactor completion project, Watts Bar 2, reaches the fuel loading stage. However, TVA recently announced a rescheduling of work at Watts Bar that has seen the planned completion date slip back from the 2013 target as announced in August 2011, possibly into 2014.

Now, Bellefonte project vice president David Stinson has announced a commensurate exercise at Bellefonte to align the organisation to manage costs with a focus on business priorities. About 900 contractors currently support the project, with about half of them working at the site itself. TVA says most of the 430 contractor positions that will be affected are located away from the Bellefonte site, with only about 85 workers at the site itself being affected.

The definition of a timeframe to verify remaining construction work and the rate at which it can be performed remains a priority for the project. The incorporation of lessons learned from Fukushima and the Watts Bar 2 construction project will also be areas on which efforts will be focused, Stinson noted. "Resetting priorities at this time makes good business sense," he said.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News