Watts Bar Nuclear Plant

Watts Bar Nuclear Plant
Watts Bar Nuclear Plant
	Watts Bar Nuclear Power Plant Units 1 & 2 cooling towers and containment buildings.
Country	United States
Location	Rhea County, near Spring City, Tennessee
Coordinates	35°36′10″N 84°47′22″W / 35.60278°N 84.78944°W
Status	Operational
Construction began	Unit 1: July 20, 1973; Unit 2: September 1, 1973
Commission date	Unit 1: May 27, 1996; Unit 2: October 19, 2016
Construction cost	More than $12 billion
Owner(s)	Tennessee Valley Authority
Operator(s)	Tennessee Valley Authority
Nuclear power station
Reactor type	PWR
Reactor supplier	Westinghouse
Cooling towers	2 × Natural Draft
Cooling source	Tennessee River
Thermal capacity	1 × 3459 MWth; 1 × 3411 MWth
Power generation
Units operational	1 × 1167 MW; 1 × 1165 MW
Make and model	WH 4-loop (ICECND)
Nameplate capacity	2332 MW
Capacity factor	68.10% (2017); 73.45% (lifetime)
Annual net output	16,808 GWh (2022)
External links
Website	www.tva.gov/Energy/Our-Power-System/Nuclear/Watts-Bar-Nuclear-Plant
Commons	Related media on Commons
	[edit on Wikidata]

The Watts Bar Nuclear Plant is a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) nuclear reactor pair used for electric power generation. It is located on a 1,770-acre (7.2 km²) site in Rhea County, Tennessee, near Spring City, between Chattanooga and Knoxville. Watts Bar supplies enough electricity for about 1.2 million households in the Tennessee Valley.

The plant, construction of which began in 1973, has two Westinghouse pressurized water reactor units: Unit 1, completed in 1996, and Unit 2, completed in 2015. Unit 1 has a winter net dependable generating capacity of 1,167 megawatts. Unit 2 has a capacity of 1,165 megawatts. Unit 2 was the first of three new power reactors to enter service in the 21st century in the United States, followed by Vogtle Electric Generating Plant Units 3 and 4.
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