RHEA COUNTY, TN (WDEF-TV_- After years of preparation and construction, Watts Bar Unit 2 is now just months away from becoming the first nuclear generation in the 21st century. TVA announced this ...

Watts Bar becomes America's first new nuclear reactor of the 21st century [photos] October 19, 2016 at 1:19 p.m. | Updated October 19, 2016 at 11:53 p.m. by Dave Flessner ...

TVA said Unit 2 of Watts Bar Nuclear Plant has achieved full power output following the completion of construction. Construction for the reactor was first started in 1979 then restarted in 2008.

TVA expects the unit 2 reactor to achieve 100 percent power and be declared complete and commercially viable by this summer - nearly 43 years after construction first began at Watts Bar.

Before Unit 2 was completed earlier this year, the last time a nuclear plant began its initial operations in the United States was when Watts Bar Unit 1 started up in 1996, twenty years ago. As ...

The last hurdle for Watts Bar 2 is a pre-commercial reliability run. The unit must operate at 100% power for a minimum of 20 days before commercial operation can be declared.

The TVA expects Watts Bar Unit 2 will be placed in commercial operation this summer at a total estimated project cost of $4.7 billion. —Aaron Larson, associate editor (@AaronL_Power, @POWERmagazine) ...

Unit 1 at Watts Bar entered commercial operations in 1996. In 1988, TVA suspended construction activities on Unit 2 due to a reduction in the predicted power demand growth. In 2007, TVA approved ...

Operated by TVA, Unit 2 entered service in 2016 at a construction cost of $4.7 billion. The original steam generators were built in the 1970s using a metal alloy that prematurely developed leaks ...