TVA Awards Contracts On Completion of Bellafonte Nuclear Plant in Alabama.

[NNadir]

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has awarded Areva a contract for engineering and design work towards the completion of the Bellefonte nuclear power plant.

TVA is considering completing one of two partially built pressurised water reactors (PWRs) at the Alabama site as part of a future vision that sees an increasing reliance on nuclear power. The authority has set aside $248 million in its fiscal 2011 budget for work towards completion of Bellefonte unit 1, which it has identified as its preferred option for the site, although no formal board decision on whether to go ahead with the project has yet been made.

Areva's North American subsidiary has now been contracted to carry out engineering work on the plant's nuclear island, as well as working on a new state-of-the-art digital instrumentation and control (I&C) system and an advanced control room. Areva's announcement did not disclose the value of the contract, but detailed that it covers "engineering, licensing and procurement of long lead time materials in support of a possible start-up date in the 2018-9 timeframe."

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/C-Areva_wins_Bellefonte_engineering_contract-0510107.html">Major engineering contract for Bellefonte