The Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Unit 1 safely began a scheduled refueling and maintenance outage late Friday evening after generating more than 14 billion kilowatt-hours of carbon-free energy during 507 days of operation.
“For the past 18 months, Watts Bar Unit 1 has produced safe, reliable, clean and low-cost energy to residents across the Tennessee Valley,” said Tony Williams, TVA Watts Bar Site vice president. “During a planned outage like this, our dedicated team is able to make improvements and upgrades to the unit’s equipment and systems. This helps ensure that we continue to deliver the carbon-free power that nearly 10 million people count on every day.”
More than 12,400 work activities are planned, including the loading of 95 new nuclear fuel assemblies, performing inspections of reactor components and steam generators, maintenance of plant equipment and installing unit enhancements.
"To implement COVID-19 precautions in safe work practices, Watts Bar continues to take multiple and significant steps to help protect the health and well-being of employees and supplemental workers, including health screenings with the use of thermal scanning devices at plant entrance points, face-mask requirements and social distancing," officials said.
Watts Bar Unit 1 is one of seven operational TVA nuclear reactors across the Valley.