Former TVA Chairman Shocked By Revived Nuclear Interest

A former Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) chairman told the Associated Press he is "stunned" that the nation’s largest public utility is at the forefront of a movement to increase nuclear power.

S. David Freeman guided the utility during the late 1970s and early 1980s when it cancelled plans for 8 nuclear reactors after deciding they were overly expensive and unneeded.

"I am appalled at the idea that the Tennessee Valley Authority is going back to nuclear power after the experience we had with it," Freeman told The Associated Press. "Frankly, of all the places on Earth where nuclear power failed, it was here in the valley."

The TVA currently has six nuclear reactors in operation, is building a seventh and has applied for permits to build two more in Alabama. According to the AP report, the federal agency still has more than $20 billion in debt, due largely to the construction of earlier nuclear projects.

"How in the name of heaven could the Tennessee Valley Authority not remember how it got clobbered by this nuclear option financially?" Freeman said.

Read the full story, in which Freeman said, "it is as though we are nuclear-holics."