The Tennessee Valley Authority reported Friday that its Watts Bar 2 completion project remained within the revised budget and timeline approved in 2012.
Crews completed the last major systems and released them to pre-operational startup during the quarter that ended in January. In a Friday release accompanying TVA's quarterly update on progress at the plant, TVA executive Mike Skaggs said, “We were able to begin open vessel testing this week, which is slightly earlier than we expected. This is a major step toward achieving commercial operation by December 2015, our most likely target date.”
The quarterly report anticipates completion within the September 2015 to June 2016 window approved by TVA's board. Costs are expected to fall between $3.96 billion and $4.23 billion, which is also within the approved range. The federal utility restarted work on the 1,180 megawatt Westinghouse reactor in 2008 after the nearly complete project had been idled since 1985.