Nuclear clearance sale: U.S. plant on auction block at fraction of cost
by Jay Reeves, The Associated Press
Bidding opens Sept. 12 as utility looks to unload Bellefonte Nuclear Plant and 1,600 surrounding acres on Tennessee River
The Bellefonte Nuclear Plant, which has been the source of controversy for four decades, will go up for sale Sept. 12. PHOTO: Tennessee Valley Authority
HOLLYWOOD, Ala.—The nation’s largest federal utility is selling an unusual piece of property: An unfinished nuclear power plant in northeastern Alabama.
The Tennessee Valley Authority has set a minimum bid of US$36.4 million for its Bellefonte Nuclear Plant and 1,600 surrounding acres on the Tennessee River.
The buyer gets two unfinished reactors, transmission lines, office and warehouse buildings, roads, a 1,000-space parking lot and more.
TVA has spent about $5 billion on the site over the last 40 years, but it doesn’t plan to finish the plant because of flat demand for electrical power. The utility says the facility could still be finished as a power plant, but it could also become an industrial, residential or recreational site.
Bidding starts Sept. 12, and TVA hopes to sell the plant in October.
