The Biden administration wants the United States to triple the global supply of nuclear power, with American-designed reactors running on fuel enriched in the West. The goal: Usurp Russia’s near monopoly on atomic energy exports, and keep China from gaining control of yet another green energy industry.
Since its debt levels reached $24 billion at the end of 2016, the TVA has steadily shaved billions off its negative balance sheets, in part with contracts that direct revenues directly to paying down debt, John Thomas, the TVA’s chief financial officer, said on the call.
But if cost overruns prevent the TVA from actually building more than one BWRX-300 at its new Tennessee plant, there’s no guarantee that they’d see the same cost savings. And their impact on the grid would be lessEach AP-1000, meanwhile, packs 1,114 megawatts of power, enough to supply steady electricity to nearly 1 million homes. That scale may make them make, even if the first two that were built more expensive up-front to build, now that the U.S. has at least a few functional AP-1000s.
The TVA could be better positioned to soak up upfront costs than private utilities, who have a clearer conflict between stewarding investors’ money and gambling on costly projects for the greater good. to build their generators first might yield significant price savings. That makes the TVA — the only utility whose board is appointed by a president seeking to spur a nuclear revival, not by big business — a unique candidate for building reactors.also puts particular scrutiny on the TVA’s financial decisions. The TVA’s borrowing shows up on the federal balance sheet, making the utility a perennial target of fiscal hawks looking to rein in the national debt.