SPRING CITY, Tenn. – The Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Unit 1 safely began a scheduled refueling and maintenance outage late Friday evening after generating more than 13 billion kilowatt-hours of carbon-free energy during 496 days of operation.

“Nuclear power plants are among the safest and most reliable sources of clean and low-cost energy that help safeguard our region’s and nation’s energy security,” said Tony Williams, TVA Watts Bar Site Vice President. “During this planned outage, our highly skilled team will make improvements and upgrades to the unit’s equipment and systems. With our region growing six times faster than the national average, this work will help ensure that we continue to deliver the carbon-free power that nearly 10 million people across the Tennessee Valley count on every day.”

More than 10,300 work activities are planned, including the loading of 92 new nuclear fuel assemblies, performing inspections of reactor components and steam generators, maintenance of plant equipment, and installing unit enhancements.

Watts Bar Unit 1 is one of seven operational TVA nuclear reactors. TVA’s nuclear fleet is the third largest in the nation, safely and reliably providing more than 40% of all electricity TVA generates. Combined with other parts of TVA’s diverse generation system, nuclear power is the major contributor to achieve the agency’s carbon reduction targets against the 2005 benchmark of 70% by 2030, 80% by 2035, and aspire to be net-zero by 2050.

For more information about TVA and its nearly 90-year mission of service to the Tennessee Valley, click here.