Subject: Watts Bar Rally/Renewables Fair

From: James Pizzirusso <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 11:40:14 -0500 (EST)

>From:	IN%"[email-masked]" 20-APR-1995 11:24:40.34
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Date: Thu, 20 Apr 1995 11:24:32 -0400
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  
APRIL 19TH - WATTS BAR RALLY AND RENEWABLE ENERGY FAIR
PLEASE DISTRIBUTE FREELY!

Renewables Now, Watts Bar Never!
Saturday & Sunday April 29-30, 1995 in Spring City Tennessee.
Renwables Energy Fair & Watts Bar Rally.
Saturday: 10am - 7pm	Sunday: 11am - 5pm

Come Enjoy the Power of the Sun.

*  Come hear Dave Freeman, former head of the Tennessee Valley 
Authority (TVA), speak about renewable energy.

*  Meet Cyrus, Greenpeace's 18-wheel truck that carries a portable
solar electric generator and provides power from the sun!

*  Watch the actual building of a straw bale house and a geodesic 
dome that are super energy efficient.

*  Learn about the potential of windpower in the region!

*  March to the Watts Bar nuclear power plant (see fact sheet 
below) - the last nuclear power plant under construction in the 
United States.  With over 22 years of construction and $8 billion
spent, it is time ot pull the plug on this money drain!  
Saturday 11am - 2pm.

*  There will be music, food, theater and fun both days!

Directions:  Take I-75 from Chattanooga or Knoxville, Tennessee to
Exit 60 near Spring City.  Head northwest & follow the signs to 
the Watts Bar Dam.  Follow signs to the fair (across from the
nuclear plant).

Hosted by the Snail Darter Alliance (Students Promoting 
Environmental Action in Knoxville, Foundation for Global 
Sustainability, Katuah Earth First!, Tennessee Valley Energy 
Reform Coalition, Student Environmental Action Coalition, and
Greenpeace).

For more information, call: (615)-524-4771, or (615)-624-3939.
or email: [email-masked] or [email-masked]

          *** Watts Bar Nuclear Power Plant Fact Sheet  ***
                  PLEASE DISTRIBUTE FREELY

Watts Bar nuclear power plant is the only nuclear power plant 
still under activeconstruction in the United States.  Watts Bar is
the only nuclear power plant that has not received an operating 
license from the NRC.  Watts Bar has one of the most dismal 
construction histories in the United States.  TVA has spent over 
$1 million every day for the past six years trying to "correct" 
safety problems.  Every year, TVA says this plant will go into 
operation.  Every year, this plant is delayed and hundreds of 
millions of dollars are spent - 8 billion thus far.  As the only 
federal power utility in the country, TVA has been allowed to 
incur this massive debt at the expense of American taxpayers.

	        WATTS BAR IS A LEMON!!! 

*  The Watts Bar nuclear plant, located in Spring City, Tennessee 
is approximately 50 miles southwest of Knoxville and 75 miles 
northeast of Chattanooga, Tennessee.  The Tennessee Valley 
Authority (TVA) began construction on Watts Bar in 1972 with a 
$325 million budget and planned to begin operation in 1978.

*  In 1985, after delays and cost-overruns, TVA applied for an 
operating license intending to begin operation of the plant in 
mid-April.  Only weeks before Watts Bar was about to go online, 
safety concerns expressed by employees halted all construction at 
the plant.  A subsequent Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) 
investigation confirmed that the actual status of Watts Bar 
revealed a large number of significant safety problems not 
previously identified by TVA.  TVA was denied an operating license
for the facility.  The safety problems were identified in many 
areas including structural welding, electrical cables, concrete, 
seismic supports and an overall poor quality assurance and quality 
control program.  Official NRC investigations of this matter 
blamed employee harassment and intimidation as one of the root 
causes of TVA's problems.

*  Congress initiated hearings spanning throughout 1986 to deal 
with the subject of TVA mis-management, intimidation and 
harassment of employees, shoddy development of their nuclear 
program, and failure of top-level TVA managers to identify crucial
safety problems.  TVA delayed the operation of the plant until 
1988.  In 1990, after more delays and cost-overruns, the NRC once 
again denied an operating permit when safety inspections 
identified further deficiencies at the plant.

*  In 1992, TVA released a study rating Watts Bar with the highest
probability of a core meltdown accident of any plant in the United 
States.  According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, over the 
next 20 years, there is a 45% chance of a meltdown accident at a 
nuclear power plant in the United States.  

*  In August, 1993 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Inspector 
General released a report indentifying TVA as having 1/4 of all 
the employee intimidation and harassment concerns filed with the 
NRC - more than any other utility in the country.   This same year,
the TVA delayed the start up of Watts Bar three times. 

*  In 1994, during a test to prepare for the operation of the 
plant, the control room caught on fire because of a loose wire 
behind the control panels.  Several people were taken to the 
hospital.  TVA again delayed the operation of Watts Bar two more 
times.

*  In reference to many of the problems at Watts Bar Unit One, the 
NRC recently stated in a staff assessment that, "the same mistakes 
have been repeated, and original problems have not been corrected."
The NRC staff noted, during several inspections, that Quality 
Assurance had been inadequate.

*  Today, Watts Bar is in its 22nd year of construction.  For the 
past three years, TVA has consistently delayed the start up of 
Watts Bar for months at a time while promising unrealistic 
operation dates and underestimating costs.  The projected cost to 
complete Unit One at Watts Bar is $8 billion.  TVA has already 
ceased contruction on Unit Two and several other plants due in 
part to public concern.  Currently, TVA is spending over $1 million
every day to fix safety problems still being discovered at 
the plant.