By Alabama Public Radio
Knoxville, TN – The Tennessee Valley Authority has asked the Energy Department for a matching grant to study a new type of nuclear reactor. The T-V-A is already examining boiling water reactors, and the authority has asked for four million dollars to complete the study. Only three such reactors exist -- two in Japan and one in Taiwan. They were built by General Electric and Toshiba. The Tennessee Valley Authority is focusing on its Bellefonte plant site near Scottsboro. T-V-A spokesperson Gil Francis says despite the funding request and the study, the public utility is not making a commitment to build a nuclear unit there at this time. The T-V-A supplies electricity to eight-point-three million people in north Alabama and six other Southeastern states.