The Tennessee Valley Authority announced 20 December that its Watts Bar Unit 2 project is on track with the revised cost and time estimates established in April 2012.
TVA said in its second quarterly update that the project is meeting target for completion between September and December 2015, and that it remains in the projected cost range of $4 to 4.5 billion.
“The Watts Bar Unit 2 team continued to make good progress during the quarter,” said Mike Skaggs, TVA senior vice president for Nuclear Construction. “Workers achieved over 17 million work hours without a lost-time incident, and the overall acceptance rate of quality control inspections remained above 95 percent. Cost and schedule performance achieved established goals.”
During the last quarter (August-October), the project focused on efficient performance of construction activities; maintaining the overall pace of installing commodities, such as valves, piping, and cable; and continuing to implement improvement initiatives.
“While we have not identified any new short-term risks that compromise project completion, there will be challenges as we build this unit, with regulatory and licensing issues being our primary challenges,” said Skaggs.
“One step we are taking to ensure safety and that the Watts Bar Unit 2 construction timeline and budget remain on track, is implementing a project incentive completion program for eligible TVA and contract employees,” he added.
