Nuclear

Suitors for halted Bellefonte nuclear project ask TVA to consider climate in reviving sale
Suitors for halted Bellefonte nuclear project ask TVA to consider climate in reviving sale
(Photo courtesy TVA)

A private group waging a three year legal battle with Tennessee Valley Authority to buy its mothballed nuclear power plant project is now taking a new tact: climate change.

Nuclear Development LLC, the group headed by investor and real estate mogul Franklin Haney, won the right to buy the unfinished Bellefonte nuclear power plant in Hollywood, Alabama nearly five years ago. TVA had already done extensive construction on the two units, but then halted when it was decided the federal agency’s generation mix did not need such a large generating resource for many years.

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Haney’s group, which included former TVA Chairman Dennis Bottorff, drafted a proposal, and outbid others with a $118 million offer at an auction in late 2016. The revived construction effort was scheduled to begin two years later at a cost of close to $13 billion, according to previous reports.

Instead, TVA pulled out of the sale, citing failure to reach regulatory benchmarks by the Haney group. The investor also came under scrutiny after he donated $1 million to then President Trump’s inaugural committee and retained former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen temporarily, moves seen by some as possibly trying to grease the regulatory pathway for the project.

Earlier this week, Nuclear Development sent out a press release aligning its goal to complete and commission Bellefonte with the Biden Administration’s carbon reduction and climate change goals, according to a new story by the Memphis Commercial Appeal.

“There is a major mismatch between the strategy TVA’s previous leadership adopted and the new federal decarbonization targets,” reads the news release quoting Nuclear Development CEO Bill McCollum, himself also a former TVA executive. “The public-private Bellefonte partnership we originally put forward–which is still on the table–is a real opportunity for TVA’s current leadership to fix that.”

The press release goes on to say the project would contribute to goals of carbon-free power by 2035 and create more than 8,000 jobs every year for six years.

“Decarbonization goals are one factor, but when you add in the jobs, and the long term benefits for the economy, selling and completing the facility is a no-brainer,” McCollum added. “TVA’s previous leadership’s choice to back out of the Bellefonte agreement was shortsighted, but there is nothing preventing better thinking today.”

Last year, President Trump ousted the TVA chair and pushed for the removal of CEO Jeffrey Lyash, citing his high federal compensation at close to $8 million per year. A subsequent review of Lyash’s salary found that it wasn’t out of line and actually below that of many high-level utility CEOs.

Independent assessor reports TVA’s business model strong, compensation fair

TVA is a federal agency but does not receive federal funding and budgets on its own revenues, according to reports.

Work at Bellefonte’s Units 1 and 2 were both more than halfway completed when TVA ceased construction years ago. If completed, the two pressurized water reactors would have generated close to 2.3 GW at capacity, according to reports.

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