Nuclear Spent Fuel Management

July 15, 2026

2026-17606

Inspection / Evaluation

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) operates Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant (Browns Ferry), Sequoyah Nuclear Plant (Sequoyah), and Watts Bar Nuclear Plant (Watts Bar), which have a combined generating capacity to power more than 4.5 million homes and businesses.  During calendar years (CY) 2024 through 2025, these three nuclear plants used about 1,410 fuel assemblies combined.  After spent nuclear fuel is removed from the reactor core at each of TVA’s nuclear plants, it is maintained submerged in a spent fuel pool to cool.  Once TVA’s spent fuel has been cooled for at least 3 years, it is eligible to be put in dry cask storage.  TVA’s Nuclear Fuel Management procedure establishes requirements for TVA’s nuclear fuel related activities to comply with applicable technical specifications and regulatory requirements, licensing commitments, licensing and design bases, and additional commitments made due to industry practices.  These requirements include (1) Quality Assurance (QA) audits of spent fuel activities, (2) routine dry cask inspections, and (3) aging management surveillance programs for both the spent fuel pool and dry cask systems.  Due to the safety risk and regulatory requirements associated with storage of nuclear spent fuel, we performed an evaluation to determine if TVA was complying with selected inspection and storage requirements of spent fuel.  We determined TVA complied with inspection and storage requirements for spent fuel at TVA nuclear sites except for maintaining documentation of three daily dry cask inspections.  Specifically, we found that TVA (1) performed QA audits as well as daily and annual dry cask inspections as required and (2) addressed all issues identified during the audits and inspections.  Additionally, TVA conducted spent fuel pool and dry cask aging management surveillance tests that showed results within required technical specifications.  However, TVA could not provide documentation for three daily dry cask inspections, which are required to be maintained in accordance with TVA’s regulatory-approved Nuclear Quality Assurance Program. 

No

Yes (agency-wide)

$0

$0