TVA's nuclear plant sale, lease

Thursday, August 25, 2011

TVA's plan to sell and lease back a nuclear reactor - the new Watts Bar Unit 2 reactor - to finance much of the work of completing Bellefonte Nuclear Plant in nearby Alabama raises an obvious question: Will there be many willing buyers?

With TVA hoping to raise as much as $2.5 billion from the sale - in addition to perhaps $1 billion from the sale of the John Sevier combined cycle gas plant - whether there is enthusiasm for making such a purchase is no small matter.

TVA says there have been similar sale-and-lease deals before, and that there is some market interest.

We just hope the utility gets the price it's depending on.