The Tennessee Valley Authority is reviewing what powers its Board of Directors delegated to the CEO before the Trump administration fired two members, leaving the board unable to approve new investments and policies needed to advance its small modular reactor project in Oak Ridge.
The board selects the CEO and can hand certain powers over to the leader. At a meeting in August, it gave the CEO authority to enter into contracts with key reactor vendors and approve a construction permit application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which the TVA plans to submit by June.
President Donald Trump directed the termination of board member Michelle Moore on March 27 and board chair Joe Ritch on April 1, days after the board selected Don Moul, formerly TVA chief operating officer, as its new president and CEO. Moul took leadership of the utility April 9 after decades in nuclear operations.
“We are looking right now at what authority has been already delegated to the CEO that we can take maximum advantage of,” Joe Shea, TVA senior advisor to the Clinch River Nuclear Project, told Knox News. “There’s a lot we can continue to do through the summer into the fall.”
The TVA must get board approval before beginning construction on the reactors, though the Trump administration will need to nominate new members for confirmation by the U.S. Senate before that can happen. The utility could begin site preparations in Oak Ridge in 2026.
The pace of the project seemed to be why the Trump administration fired board members, though White House officials did not publicly state a reason for the terminations and have not replied to questions Knox News sent in emails.
The Trump administration wants small modular reactors on the grid as soon as possible to power AI data centers and domestic manufacturing, but nuclear licensing is a slow process.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission could take two and a half years to approve construction. The TVA applied for an early site permit for the reactors in May 2016 and did not receive the permit until December 2019, the first approval for a project of its kind in the U.S.
TVA officials submitted an application earlier in April for a separate $8 million Department of Energy grant to help pay for licensing costs.
TVA shaves year off small modular reactors plan after criticism
U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty of Tennessee criticized the TVA in a March 20 op-ed, writing that the board suffered from “paralysis by analysis” and needed to submit a construction permit application immediately.
Though the message didn’t change TVA’s timing for the application, it presented it with a challenge to speed up the project without risking ratepayer funding. TVA planners shaved one year off the timeline, projecting its first small modular reactors could enter operations in 2032.
TVA shaved a year off its small modular reactor project at the Clinch River Nuclear Site in Oak Ridge, saying the first reactors could come online in 2032 after elected officials criticized the project’s speed.
“The message is one of a sense of urgency,” Shea said. “We hear that, and we share that, and we look at how we can do things prudently. It’s our obligation to do it correctly.”
The TVA does not receive taxpayer money to fund its operations, relying on revenue from sales of electricity to 10 million customers in the Southeast.
Its first 300-megawatt small modular reactor could cost around $5.4 billion, a hefty price tag the utility expects to decrease for later reactors. The TVA board has approved $350 million for the project.
TVA reapplied for federal nuclear funding after ‘DEI’ removal
A TVA-led team seeking to build a U.S. supply chain for small modular reactors reapplied for $800 million in federal funding for the Clinch River project, the utility announced April 23.
The Department of Energy reissued the Biden-era funding opportunity and eliminated the community benefit requirements that Trump administration officials labeled as “DEI.” All applicants had to reapply under the new terms.
The TVA team, which includes the state of Tennessee and reactor designer GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, originally applied in January. It welcomed the chance to send in a new application with project updates to an administration that has cut spending in other areas.
“It really sent a signal that there was going to be continuity between administrations on this very important national topic,” Shea said. “Otherwise, we would’ve just been waiting for their response to our original application.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Energy told Knox News in an email the department would “work expeditiously to announce awards as soon as possible this year.”
What kind of reactors is TVA building in Oak Ridge?
When TVA went shopping for a small modular reactor design three or four years ago, an advanced version of a familiar water-cooled technology made the most sense, said Scott Hunnewell, vice president of the utility’s new nuclear program.
It announced its design partnership with GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy for the BWRX-300 reactor in 2023. The design is the 10th generation of GE’s boiling water reactor design, which the TVA already operates at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in Alabama.
The reactors at the Clinch River Nuclear Site will use the same fuel as the reactors at Browns Ferry.
Several other advanced nuclear companies like Kairos Power and X-energy are developing so-called Gen IV reactors, which are generally cooled by things other than water, like salt or gas. They also tend to use more advanced uranium fuels.
The designs have rapidly progressed from when the TVA selected its reactor, but the BWRX-300 won’t necessarily be approved faster just because it’s a Gen III model.
“I don’t think they’ll license faster. I’m not sure they’ll license slower, either. The technologies are different. The process is the same,” Hunnewell said. “That sausage-making is very similar.”
TVA’s three traditional nuclear plants – Browns Ferry in Alabama, and Sequoyah and Watts Bar in East Tennessee – are the backbone of its electrical grid. The federal utility is spending billions to extend the lives of the plants.
Its construction permit application for the Clinch River project will be the first for an advanced Gen III reactor since units 3 and 4 at Plant Vogtle in Georgia, which entered operations in 2023 and 2024.
If it manages to bring the first U.S. small modular reactors online, the TVA could open up a nuclear market for both large-scale and small reactors. Hunnewell compares the market to shopping for a pickup truck.
“Maybe I would love to have an F-350 King Ranch, or maybe even an F-450,” Hunnewell said. “But the F-150 may do everything I need it to do today, and it’s a fraction of the cost.”
Daniel Dassow is a growth and development reporter focused on technology and energy. Email: daniel.dassow@knoxnews.com. Signal: @danieldassow.24.
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This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: TVA reviews powers board gave to CEO as it speeds new nuclear project