[Peace-discuss] Obama's four nominees to TVA board all support more nukes

[C. G. Estabrook]

	*TVA board nominees voice nuclear support
	*Wednesday, February 10, 2010
	By: Dave Flessner

Nuclear poised to take slice of energy pie

The Tennessee Valley Authority should continue to build more nuclear
power plants while encouraging customers to be more energy efficient,
according to those nominated to serve on the TVA board.

During a U.S. Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday, the four TVA nominees
all voiced support for expanding nuclear power for what they said is a
needed clean energy source for the seven-state region.

"There is a lot of power that is going unexploited in the (Tennessee)
Valley, and I am interested in pursuing every bit of waste heat and
power," said Dr. Marilyn Brown, a Georgia Tech energy professor
nominated to serve on the nine-member, part-time board.

"But I am pro-nuclear and I do think it needs to be part of the
solution, and I look forward to bringing another unit at Watts Bar on
very quickly," she said.

Dr. Barbara Haskew, a Middle Tennessee State University professor and
former TVA manager, also said she wants TVA to promote more efficiency
and more nuclear generation.

"To support economic growth, I think we have to have low-cost power, and
that additional power may have to be through nuclear," she said.

Neal McBride, an Oak Ridge attorney also nominated for the TVA board,
told a Senate panel that "in the short run, additional generation needs
to come almost surely from new nuclear" power plants.

TVA is in the midst of a five-year, $2.5 billion program to finish a
second reactor at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant near Spring City, Tenn.,
by 2012.

Former TVA Chairman Bill Sansom of Knoxville, the lone Republican
nominated by President Barack Obama to fill one of the TVA board
vacancies, said TVA also is moving toward finishing one of the original
reactors at the Bellefonte Nuclear Plant in Alabama and could add three
more reactors at that site in future years.

"We've got some old dirty coal plants and, even if we were to miss the
call for increased demand, I think nuclear must be part of our
solution," Mr. Sansom said.

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., urged the TVA nominees to support
building more nuclear power plants, which he said would help lower air
emissions and limit rate increases. Sen. Alexander and Sen. Bob Corker,
R-Tenn., praised the four candidates for the TVA board vacancies and
urged their prompt confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

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