TVA Asks to Finish Bellefonte Nuclear Plant

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The Tennessee Valley Authority has asked federal regulators to renew construction permits for two unfinished nuclear reactors in Alabama that it virtually abandoned 20 years ago.

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman says it's probably the first request of this type the commission has received and may take some time to review.

Knoxville-based TVA deferred construction on the Unit 1 and Unit 2 reactors at the Bellefonte site near Scottsboro, Ala., in the 1980s. It asked the NRC to cancel the construction permits in 2006.

But the nation's largest public utility is looking at all options to meet future power needs and it now wants to study the feasibility of finishing those reactors.