Former TVA Board Chairman S. David Freeman said Thursday that TVA is making a colossal mistake in returning to nuclear power.
The 82-year-old Freeman, at a press conference in his native Chattanooga, said the problems associated with nuclear power "are just as awesome and fearful as those with climate change."
He said TVA instead should be making a push on energy efficiency and alternative energy sources.
Mr. Freeman said within a period of 20 years those could be developed to meet TVA's power needs.
Mr. Freeman, who appeared at the Bicentennial Library with a group opposing the construction of two nuclear units at TVA's Ballafonte plant at Scottsboro, Ala., said the continued burning of fossil fuels poses catastrophic perils for the planet.
He said TVA was at one time a leader in seeking to develop vehicles that are not gasoline-powered. He said the current U.S. reliance on foreign oil represents "the largest monetary transfer in the history of the world." And he said much of the money is going to "nations where we are not liked."
Mr. Freeman said current problems relating to global warming and renewed use of nuclear power are more frightening than World War II was to an earlier generation.
He said, "This civilization is in a very real way on death row."
Mr. Freeman said in the 1970s that TVA "had 300 energy docs making house calls and was making $300 million in energy efficiency loans. He said the agency has no such programs now.
He said TVA operated its system totally on renewable energy until the 1940s.
Mr. Freeman said when TVA got into the nuclear business it brought "cost overruns that we couldn't deal with."
He said there remains a $30 billion TVA spending limit imposed by Congress. He said he understands that power distributors may form a consortium to help finance some of the nuclear expansion, but he said that may be an illegal way to get around the TVA spending limit.