Chattanooga, Tenn.

Located at the base of Lookout Mountain is Chattanooga, Tenn., the fourth-largest city in the state. The town of 496,000 people has a vast history of being known as a manufacturing town since the arrival of the railroad in 1850. Showing resilience, the city of Chattanooga has survived tough times such as the American Civil War and massive floods, especially the flood of 1867 which is thought to be the worst in the cities long history. But the workforce in Chattanooga has always been strong and city mayor Ron Littlefield said “manufacturing has always been in the DNA of the community.” During the 1970s and 1980s Chattanooga focused heavily on cleaning the air and water in the city that Walter Cronkite described as the most polluted city in America in 1969.

Fast forward to 2010 and Chattanooga is home to some of the top power generation companies such as the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), SIAG Aerisyn, Alstom and Westinghouse. And this week brought another milestone to the city’s development of power generation facilities. Having the opportunity to visit Chattanooga this week, I got to see the grand opening of Alstom’s $300 million production facility for steam turbines, gas turbines, large turbo-generators and related equipment for the North American fossil fuel and nuclear power generation market. Alstom CEO Patrick Kron said Chattanooga was a perfect fit for Alstom to get closer to their U.S. customers. And with easy accessibility to the Tennessee River, the plant will have access to 80 percent of nuclear power plants in the United States. With the rotor welding line and the non-destructive testing already operational, Alstom will ship their first turbine from the Chattanooga plant in early 2011.

But power generation has long been an economic driver in the community. Founded in 1933 when Congress signed the TVA Act, one of the nation’s largest public power providers is sending electricity to 9 million people in a seven state region. With coal-fired plants providing more than 100 billion kWh annually, 60 percent of TVA’s total generation comes from coal-fired plants and combustion turbines. 30 percent of generation comes from the three nuclear power plants TVA currently operates and the remaining 10 percent from hydro plants. With their nuclear plants’ six reactors currently providing 6,800 MW and the need for power continuing to grow, TVA is constructing another reactor at the Watts Bar plant. The five-year project is due to be complete in October of 2012 and will add an additional 1,180 MW to TVA’s generation.

Keeping the nuclear generation trend alive in Chattanooga was made easier with the 2009 opening of the Westinghouse U.S. Boiling Water Reactor Service Center. The 66,000 square foot facility is used to train employees, customers and industry personnel on the safe refueling and maintenance of boiling water reactors in the U.S. The training facility is complete with a mock-up single control cell, jet pump, under vessel carousel, refueling bridge and 251” GE reactor. The 600,000 gallon cavity is an exact replica of a operating reactor, only on the clean side. There is no radioactive material at the facility. Students can operate remote vehicles to deliver equipment to the reactor from a refueling bridge that is an actual bridge from a canceled plant. When the cavity is drained students can go into the reactor to study the quarter grid of the reactor to learn about the reactor from the inside. With between 200 and 400 students passing through the facilities doors per year, Westinghouse has one of the only training facilities of its kind to prepare people for the operation of nuclear power plant reactors.

“I can’t see how nuclear power can’t be part of the energy solution in America moving forward,” said Bruce Phares, director of the BWR Reactor Services in Chattanooga.

To help even more with the development of students and interest in the power generation industry is the Engineering Technology Division at Chattanooga State University headed by Dean Tim McGhee. The school’s Radiation Protection program was started in the fall of 2008 with an annual target of 15 students graduating. In May of this year, 13 students graduated and 12 went straight to work at TVA.

“The industry is looking at us as an opportunity to recruit,” said McGhee.

Recruiting at high schools has led to the radiation protection program to have the current mark of 100 students.

The creation of jobs and the boost to the local economy provided by power generation facilities in Chattanooga, Tenn. has led the people of this city and surrounding communities to believe there is room for growth in the industry. Hamilton County Mayor Claude Ramsey said nuclear power has been part of the lives of people in Chattanooga and has never left the city. The city does continue to grow in the power generation industry and I look forward to the next big announcement out of this area of southeastern Tennessee.