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NRC Region Two (South)
Alabama
Bellefonte (unfinished)
Browns Ferry
Farley
Florida
Crystal River 3
St. Lucie
Turkey Point
Georgia
Hatch
Vogtle
North Carolina
Brunswick
McGuire
Shearon Harris
South Carolina
Catawba
Oconee
H.B. Robinson
Summer
Tennessee
Sequoyah
Watts Bar
Virginia
North Anna
Surry

The Watts Bar Nuclear Generating Station is a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) nuclear reactor used for electric power generation and tritium production for nuclear weapons. It is located between Chattanooga, Tennessee and Knoxville, Tennessee on a 1,770 acre (7.2 km²) site. Watts Bar 1 was the last civilian reactor to come on-line in the United States. Watts Bar supplies enough electricity for about 250,000 households in the Tennessee Valley.

This plant has one Westinghouse pressurized water reactor, one of two whose construction commenced in 1973. Unit 1 was completed in 1996.

Unit 2 was about 80% complete when its construction was stopped in 1988. The official reason given for halting construction was a decrease in demand for electricity, but the decision was hailed as a victory by anti-nuclear activists. Watts Bar 2 remains partly completed, but it has been approved for completion. Construction is schedule to start in 2007, with the reactor expected to resume operation in 2013.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission operating license for Watts Bar was modified in September 2002 to allow TVA to irradiate tritium-producing burnable absorber rods at Watts Bar to produce tritium for the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) National Nuclear Security Administration. The Watts Bar license amendment currently permits TVA to install up to 240 tritium-producing rods in Watts Bar Unit 1. Planned future license amendments would allow TVA to irradiate up to approximately 2,000 tritium-producing rods in the Watts Bar reactor.

TVA began irradiating tritium-producing rods at Watts Bar Unit 1 in the fall of 2003. TVA removed these rods from the reactor in the spring of 2005. DOE successfully shipped them to its tritium-extraction facility in South Carolina. DOE reimburses TVA for the cost of providing the irradiation services, and also pays TVA a fee for each tritium-producing rod that is irradiated.

• National Nuclear Safety Administration News
• TVA Fact Sheet: Tritium Production at TVA

• TVA web page on Watts Bar.
• DoE Page

• Maps and aerial photos Coordinates: 35.602226° -84.791451°
  • WikiSatellite view at WikiMapia
  • Street map from Mapquest or Google
  • Topographic map from Topozone
  • Aerial photograph from Terraserver or Google
  • Closeup aerial from Terraserver or Google

v • d • e U.S. NRC Licensed Nuclear Power Plants (decommissioned or inactive plants are in parentheses and italic)
Arkansas · Arnold · Beaver Valley · (Bellefonte) · (Big Rock Point) · Braidwood · Browns Ferry · Brunswick · Byron · Callaway · Calvert Cliffs · (CVTR) · Catawba · Clinton · Columbia · Comanche · Cook · Cooper · (Connecticut Yankee) · Crystal River · Davis-Besse · Diablo Canyon · (Dresden) · (EBR I) · (EBR II) · (Elk River) · Fermi · Farley · Fitzpatrick · Fort Calhoun · (Fort St. Vrain) · Ginna · Grand Gulf · Harris · Hatch · Hope Creek · Indian Point · Kewaunee · La Crosse · LaSalle · Limerick · (Maine Yankee) · McGuire · Millstone · Monticello · Nine Mile Point · North Anna · Oconee · Oyster Creek · Palisades · Palo Verde · Pathfinder · Peach Bottom · Perry · Pilgrim · (Piqua) · Point Beach · Prairie Island · Quad Cities · (Rancho Seco) · River Bend · Robinson · Salem · San Onofre · (Santa Susana) · Seabrook · Sequoyah · (SL-1) · (Shippingport) · (Shoreham) · South Texas · St. Lucie · Surry · Summer · Susquehanna · Three Mile Island · (Trojan) · Turkey Point · (Vallecitos) · Vermont Yankee · Vogtle · Waterford · Watts Bar · Wolf Creek · (Yankee Rowe) · (Zion)
Proposed U.S. Nuclear Power Plants
Black Fox Nuclear Power Plant (failed) · Galena Nuclear Power Plant (future proposal)