A Tennessee nuclear plant that began construction in 1973 is on schedule to open in December 2015. During a conference call Thursday, Tennessee Valley Authority Senior Vice President of Nuclear Construction Mike Skaggs said the Watts Bar 2 plant is on schedule and on budget at a projected cost of between $4 and $4 and a half billion dollars.
The project near Chattanooga was shut down in 1985 when it was about half finished. Work resumed in 2008 and was scheduled to be completed in late 2012. In April 2012, TVA announced the work would not be complete until 2015 and would take $2 billion more than originally budgeted.
Skaggs says one of the challenges is meeting new safety requirements implemented after the Fukushima, Japan, nuclear meltdowns in 2011.
