ATHENS – The Tennessee Valley Authority’s Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant Unit 1 resumed the safe and reliable generation of carbon-free electricity at 2:39 a.m. CT on October 27, following the completion of a scheduled maintenance and refueling outage.
Outage work was completed safely, without significant error and while achieving the station’s lowest outage dose total ever. This exemplifies TVA’s commitment to protecting the safety of its employees and reducing risk to people and the plant, including using innovation and technology to complete work with a greater margin of safety and increased efficiency.
“We have an important mission to meet the energy needs of the Tennessee Valley with carbon-free electricity while also protecting the health and safety of the public in everything we do,” said Browns Ferry Site Vice President Manu Sivaraman. “Outages like the one we just completed on Unit 1 are our best opportunity to ensure we fulfill TVA’s mission of service and economic development with the highest margin of safety and the greatest degree of reliability.”
The Browns Ferry team’s focus on outage innovation included using a drone instead of humans to conduct a key inspection of the Unit 1 condenser where steam used to generate electricity is converted to water for reuse in the reactor. In addition, one of the station’s nuclear unit operators used 3D printing to create a tool to make it safer and easier to remove and install fuses in the tight confines of electrical breaker cabinets.
Nearly 12,000 work activities were safely completed to prepare Unit 1 for the next two-year generating cycle, including the installation of 328 new fuel assemblies, inspections and repairs of reactor components and upgrades, modifications, repairs and testing of key safety systems and other plant equipment. This effort illustrates TVA’s congoing commitment to further improve equipment reliability at its three nuclear stations, enhancing the safe and reliable operation of its reactors.
Browns Ferry Unit 1 is one of seven operational TVA nuclear reactors across the Valley. TVA’s nuclear fleet is the third largest in the nation, safely and reliably providing nearly 45 percent of all electricity used by nearly 10 million people in the Tennessee Valley.
Media Release/Geraldine Gallman/TVA
