After generating more than 20 billion kilowatt hours of carbon-free electricity over the past two years, TVA’s Browns Ferry Unit 1 was safely taken offline Friday night to start a scheduled refueling and maintenance outage that will prepare the unit for the next two years of providing energy to the people of the Tennessee Valley.
Before being taken offline, Unit 1 produced power for more than 682 days, including two separate continuous runs of more than 433 consecutive days and 249 consecutive days. This demonstrates TVA’s commitment to equipment reliability and the safe operation of its nuclear units, said officials.
“Outages are our best opportunity to thoroughly prepare our units to safely and reliably generate the power needed by homes and businesses in our service area with new fuel, equipment upgrades, priority maintenance, inspections and testing,” said Browns Ferry Site Vice President Manu Sivaraman. “By focusing on safety and fundamentals, we’ll do error-free work to get Unit 1 ready for the next two years so we’re right there providing power when our communities and neighbors need it the most.”
TVA’s investment in improvements at all three of its nuclear power stations helps support its mission of service and economic development, ensuring the reliable and low-cost energy needs of the region are met, particularly during the peak demand periods of summer and winter, said officials.
More than 850 contractors and shared resource employees from other TVA nuclear stations will assist the Browns Ferry team complete outage activities.
In total, the Unit 1 outage will feature more than 10,300 scheduled work activities, including the installation of 328 new fuel assemblies and a refurbished low-pressure turbine rotor. Scheduled outage work also includes upgrades, modifications, repairs and testing of other plant equipment, including inspections of reactor components and maintenance of key safety systems.
Browns Ferry Unit 1 is one of seven TVA nuclear reactors generating low-cost and carbon-free energy across the Valley. TVA’s nuclear fleet is the third largest in the nation, safely and reliably providing about 40 percent of all electricity used by nearly 10 million people in the region.