Tennessee Nuclear Reactor Almost Complete, Asks for License

The owner of a Tennessee nuclear power plant asked the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Friday to issue an operating license for what could be the country's first reactor to enter service since 1996.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) said the reactor for unit 2 at its Watts Bar nuclear plant in Spring City, Tennessee, is substantially complete.

The notification to the NRC is a major construction and licensing milestone for the project and follows the completion of comprehensive testing on major unit 2 systems to demonstrate operational readiness, the company said.

The 1,150-megawatt reactor, which the company started building in the 1970s before stopping construction in the 1980s due to lower energy demand, will be the country's first new reactor since 1996 when Watts Bar 1 entered service.

If NRC grants the license, it is not known when the reactor will enter service.

(Reporting by Arpan Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)