The Tennessee Valley Authority has set a date for an auction to sell an unfinished nuclear power plant in northeast Alabama.
The federal utility says the Bellefonte Nuclear Plant will be sold at auction on Nov. 14. Minimum bids are set at $36.4 million. The TVA won't release any details on potential buyers, so it's unknown how many bidders might be interested in the plant.
However, one company did attempt to buy the facility outright. Nevada-based Phoenix Energy submitted a 38 million dollar bid and still hopes to purchase the facility at auction. They intend to finish the plant to utilize a new type of magnetic inductive power generation to produce electricity.
The TVA says it has invested some $5 billion in the plant since construction began in the mid-1970s. But work was never finished as power demand leveled off. The utility says the primary goal in selling the site now is to provide the best long-term economic return to surrounding communities.
The eventual buyer will get 1,600 acres of land plus several buildings including two unfinished nuclear reactors.