First New Nuclear Reactor In a Decade On Track

dusty writes "Plans to bring online the first new US nuclear plant since 1995 are on track, on time, and on budget according to the Tennessee Valley Authority. TVA had one major accident with a coal ash spill of late, and one minor one. The agency has plans and workers in place to have Unit 2 at Watts Bar, near Knoxville, online by 2012. Currently over 1,800 workers are doing construction at the plant. Watts Bar #1 is the only new nuclear reactor added to the grid in the last 25 years. From the article: 'TVA estimates the Watts Bar Unit 2 reactor every year will avoid the emission of about 60 million metric tons of greenhouse emissions linked with global warming. ... TVA began construction of Watts Bar in 1973, but work was suspended in 1988 when TVA's growth in power sales declined. After mothballing the unit for 19 years, TVA's board decided in 2007 to finish the reactor because it is projected to provide cheaper, no carbon-emitting power compared with the existing coal plants or purchased power it may help replace.'"

Re:Finally

[Anonymous Coward]

Or ones of no relevance. I call dibs on yours!

No matter how bad things get

[Aku Head]

with global warming spawned fires and floods and tropical diseases, I will sleep peacefully at night with the knowledge that hillbillies have electricity.

Re:Just Takes One

[Anonymous Coward]

A stranger was seated next to a little girl on the airplane when the
stranger turned to her and said, 'Let's talk. I've heard that flights go
quicker if you strike up a conversation with your fellow passenger.'

The little girl, who had just opened her book, closed it slowly and said
to the stranger, 'What would you like to talk about?'
'Oh, I don't know,' said the stranger. 'How about nuclear power?' and he
smiles.
'OK, ' she said. 'That could be an interesting topic.

But let me ask you a question first. A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat
the same stuff - grass. Yet a deer excretes little pellets, while a cow turns out a flat patty,
and a horse produces clumps of dried grass. Why do you suppose that is?'
The stranger, visibly surprised by the little girl's intelligence, thinks
about it and says, 'Hmmm, I have no idea.'
To which the little girl replies, 'Do you really feel qualified to
discuss nuclear power when you don't know shit?

Re:Just Takes One

[Ihmhi]

Science-to-car analogy translation:

All car engines use small explosions to provide power. What you don't want to happen is a really big explosion.

I heard...

[lymond01]

that they were just waiting on Windows 7.

Home means Nevada, home means the hills...

[Xaedalus]

The hills of Dixie Valley in this case. Fallon, NV was witness to an above-ground nuke in the 1960's at some point. The whole town came out to watch the big boom (more than 25 miles away). Apparently you can still go out there to Dixie Valley and see the blast crater. And yes, I'm a Nevadan. I glow in the dark and sport an absurd immunity to arsenic. When the apocalypse does come around, I and my fellow Nevadans will be duking it out with the giant mutant cockroaches and their cthonic overloads atop the mounds of your corpses. (Texans ain't got shit when it comes to heat, environment, guns per capita, or any claim to be tough in general - we laugh in their general direction)

Re:Just Takes One

[gandhi_2]

No kidding. I mean, we already have constant hydrogen fusion in the sun, making large swaths of the earth inhabitable. And we all know how THAT turned out.

Re:Home means Nevada, home means the hills...

[Anonymous Coward]

Hell yes. I'm disappointed that someone modded you down, but it's mostly likely some Texan who couldn't take the heat.

Re:Just Takes One

[c6gunner]

You're being unfair to the Titanic. In order for it to be a fair comparison, you'd have to have the crew of the Titanic cut hols in all of the interior bulkheads, cut apart all the lifeboats and life-preservers, and then steer the ship at full speed directly into the biggest iceberg they could find. Only then would the Titanic incident be somewhat comparable to the sheer negligence of the Chernobyl technicians.

Re:Just Takes One

[mqduck]

It was more of a "Titanic" incident than anything else I can think of in history.

Do I really need to point out the obvious here?

Whoosh!

[HiggsBison]

Criticality is a function of free neutrons: if there's not enough to sustain a reaction, it's subcritical; if it's break-even, it's critical, and if there are enough to grow the reaction it's supercritical. Contrary to the movies, a reactor that's critical is not a failure state (it's normal operation). Even "supercritical" isn't necessarily trouble (though if you stay supercritical for too long it will eventually be).

When a reactor finds fault with 'most everything you do or say, it is said to be "hypercritical".

Nuclear

[AP31R0N]

Nuclear... the OTHER n-word Americans are phobic about.

Re:Finally

[Muad'Dave]

Solar thermal is much more efficient and has the advantage of being able to use heat sequestering with molten salt or oil...

Plus everyone can deep fry their turkeys for free.