TVA Names Stinson to Head Watts Bar Unit 2 Completion

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Feb 16, 2011, 04:50 ET

SPRING CITY, Tenn., Feb. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Tennessee Valley Authority has named Dave Stinson, former recovery manager for TVA's Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant Unit 3, as vice president for the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant Unit 2 construction project.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100304/TVALOGO)

Stinson first came to TVA in 1992, and his work throughout the mid-90s included helping return Browns Ferry Unit 3 to service in 1995.

"Dave Stinson's extensive experience in managing complex projects will help us reach our goal to have Watts Bar Unit 2 online before the end of 2012," said Ashok Bhatnagar, senior vice president of Nuclear Generation Development and Construction. "Completion of this project will help TVA achieve its vision to be a leading provider of cleaner, low-cost energy by 2020."

The five-year, $2.5 billion Watts Bar Unit 2 project began in 2007 and will be the first new reactor to achieve commercial operations in the United States since Watts Bar Unit 1 in 1996. The reactor will add 1,180 megawatts to the TVA power system and will provide about 290 permanent jobs. Some 3,500 contract workers are involved in its construction.

Stinson takes over the position from Marie Gillman, who had managed the Watts Bar 2 project on a temporary basis since Jan. 28. Stinson most recently worked at Shaw AREVA MOX Services, where he served as president and chief operating officer from 2006 to 2010. In that position, he headed design, construction and licensing of the Department of Energy facility being built in South Carolina to convert surplus nuclear weapons material to mixed-oxide, or MOX, fuel for nuclear power plants.

Stinson is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy. He has worked at engineering companies in Huntsville, Ala., in support of TVA and other nuclear power plants. In 1983, he founded Digital Engineering, a nuclear engineering and software development company that supported engineering, construction and startup activities at nuclear power plants, including Watts Bar, Sequoyah, Browns Ferry and Bellefonte.

The Tennessee Valley Authority, a corporation owned by the U.S. government, provides electricity for utility and business customers in most of Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia – an area of 80,000 square miles with a population of 9 million. TVA operates 29 hydroelectric dams, 11 coal-fired power plants, three nuclear plants and 11 natural gas-fired power facilities that can produce about 34,000 megawatts of electricity, delivered over 16,000 miles of high-voltage power lines. TVA also provides flood control, navigation, land management and recreation for the Tennessee River system and works with local utilities and state and local governments to promote economic development across the region. TVA, which makes no profits and receives no taxpayer money, is funded by sales of electricity to its customers. Electricity prices in TVA's service territory are below the national average.

Photo available at http://www.tva.com/news/releases.

SOURCE Tennessee Valley Authority