US power utility Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has confirmed that it would sell its Bellefonte nuclear project in Alabama (United States). The project will be offered for sale to the "highest qualified bidder" through a public auction with an established minimum price.
The Bellefonte site includes two pressurized water reactors, whose construction was suspended in 1988 (around 55% complete). In 2007, TVA submitted a combined construction and operation licence (COL) application to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for two new AP1000 units, Bellefonte 3 and 4, before requesting the NRC to reinstate the construction permits for units 1 and 2 and to defer the COL application for units 3 and 4. Construction permits for the first two units were reinstated in 2009 and TVA announced plans to complete the first reactor in 2011 (estimated cost of US$4.9bn, revised US$7.5-8.7bn in late 2014).
TVA, which is already building the Watts Bar 2 nuclear power plant, aims to commission this project in June 2016. According to TVA's Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), the company will not need to build any new large-scale base-load power capacity for at least 20 years and did not include new units at Bellefonte in its 2015 Integrated Resource Plan.
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