Alexander says Watts Bar Nuclear Plant is ahead of the game after tour of FLEX Equipment Storage Building
Spring City, TN (October 8, 2014) — Watts Bar Nuclear Plant had a special guest Wednesday. Senator Lamar Alexander stopped by for a tour of Watts Bar’s first of it’s kind FLEX building.
The building is resistant to high winds and flooding and will be used to store equipment to be used in case of a natural disaster here in Spring City, TN.
“The building was built to satisfy the orders of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in response to the disaster in Fukushima, Japan,” says Mike Skaggs, TVA senior vice president for Nuclear Construction.
“TVA is ahead of the game,” said Alexander. “They are the first utility in the country to be opening a new nuclear reactor in this century.”
“This is about having enough cheap clean reliable electricity in the Tennessee Valley. Nuclear power is clean in the sense that it creates clean air as well as cheap and reliable electricity,” says Alexander.
He says the construction of the FLEX building and Watts Bar Unit 2 is a testament to the workforce in Rhea County and the Tennessee Valley.
“If you want a definition of high quality contruction this is it,” adds Alexander.
When Watts Bar Unit 2 is completed, it will generate 1,150 megawatts of electricity — enough for about 650,000 homes.
