Four nominees to the Tennessee Valley Authority board told US senators they would support new advanced nuclear development for the federal power provider to meet forecast demand.
The TVA will need 30% to 80% more power generation capacity to meet anticipated demand, and board members will have to make decisions on long-term investments to ensure adequate capacity while maintaining "reasonable and affordable" customer rates, said Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.).
"No small task," Capito added.
President Donald Trump nominated Mitch Graves, Jeff Hagood, Randall Jones and Arthur Graham to the TVA board in July. Their nominations must be approved by the Senate, which would return the board to a voting quorum.
Since the Trump administration fired the chair and another TVA board member in March and April, the board has been without a quorum. The TVA board is nonpartisan and is supposed to include nine members appointed by the president. Past members have served under multiple administrations.
Due to the lack of a quorum, the board has not been able to move forward on the TVA's integrated resource plan.
Each of the four nominees told the committee during an Oct. 22 hearing that they would support expanding the TVA's nuclear generation capacity. The TVA operates about 8,800 MW of nuclear capacity at three sites.
"The TVA must focus on expanding generation capacity and not prematurely closing down current generation, expanding into new nuclear technology and strengthening transmission to assure reliability," said Graham, a member of the Florida Public Service Commission.
"Nuclear power is going to have to play an extremely important part, and that's a costly venture to go into," said Graves, a healthcare executive who is on the board of the Memphis Light Gas and Water Division. "So there are things we will have to look at as a board of how we fund that going forward."
"Our best hope is nuclear," said Hagood, a Tennessee attorney. "I'm bullish [on] the new [small modular reactor] technology."
"If confirmed, I will commit to continue to look into carbon-free future technology and also increase the hydro power and the nuclear," said Jones, who serves on the board of an Alabama municipal utility. "On the nuclear end of it, we need a sense of urgency."
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission on July 10 accepted the TVA's construction permit application to build what could be the first utility-scale SMR in the country. The TVA is the first utility applying to build GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy Inc.'s BWRX-300 design in the US and could clear the path for other utilities looking to deploy the same technology. The NRC set a 17-month schedule to review the permit application. (Docket No. 50-0615)
"The biggest opportunity" is nuclear, especially the SMRs, Graham said. "I think we have the opportunity to make that happen ... as quick as we can," he added.
The TVA submitted its construction permit application in May for the Clinch River Nuclear SMR Project near Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The federal power authority already secured the nation's first and only early site permit for an SMR.
The TVA partnered with Ontario Power Generation Inc. (OPG) in 2023 to expedite development of the BWRX-300 design for use in the US and Canada. Four BWRX-300 reactors were recently cleared for construction in Clarington, Ontario, with commercial operation expected by the end of 2029 at OPG's Darlington nuclear site.
The TVA also led an application filed in January for $800 million in federal grant funds to help pay for the BWRX-300 project at Clinch River, alongside Duke Energy Corp., American Electric Power Co. Inc. and others. The US Energy Department in March reissued the solicitation for SMRs, with $900 million available, and the TVA-led group has reapplied.
Receiving the federal funding could accelerate construction by two years, with commercial operation planned in 2033.
The TVA has invested $200 million in the Clinch River project so far, and its board has authorized another $150 million.
The TVA announced an agreement Sept. 2 for ENTRA1 Energy LLC to provide the federal power authority with up to 6 GW of new nuclear power using NuScale Power Corp.'s VOYGR 77-MW SMR design.
TVA privatization
The four nominees told Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) that they would not support privatization of the TVA. Labor unions, environmental advocates and others joined together in August to oppose to what they said were the Trump administration's initial steps to privatize the TVA.
