The cooling tower of the single operating reactor at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant belches steam in Spring City, Tenn.Tennessee Valley Authority board members learned Thursday that the second reactor at Watts Bar Nuclear Plant will not be completed before 2014 and is over budget.
“We didn’t understand the complexity of the project as well as we should have,” TVA’s new nuclear chief, Mike Skaggs, told the board, blaming problems on “leadership.”
The reactor was initially to cost $2.5 billion and be completed later this year. TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore said it may be April before he can say how late or over budget the plant will be.
“If I knew that I’d have told you before,” Kilgore said. “I don’t want to miss it again. We’re going to be very careful.”
Skaggs said TVA has brought in two independent assessments “to assure ourselves” of new adjustments and estimates.