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Judge: TVA Deal for Bellefonte Nuclear Plant Stays in Place

May 17, 2019

A federal judge this week ruled the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) must continue to honor an agreement to sell the unfinished Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant to a real estate developer who has said he would complete construction of the long-idled project.

U.S. District Court Judge Liles C. Burke, in a 17-page opinion issued after a hearing this week in Huntsville, Alabama, declined to dismiss a lawsuit brought by developer Franklin Haney, who sued TVA in November 2018 for breach of contract after TVA said it could not complete the sale of the Bellefonte site and its assets to Haney’s Nuclear Development LLC.

Haney in 2016 was the winning bidder in an auction for Bellefonte, agreeing to pay $ 111 million for the twin-reactor nuclear plant. He sued TVA last year after the federally owned utility said it needed approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to authorize the sale.

TVA at the 2016 auction said the winning bidder would have two years to complete the purchase.…

Developer Sues TVA Over Cancellation of Bellefonte Deal

December 4, 2018

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The real estate developer who has tried for more than two years to buy the assets of the canceled Bellefonte nuclear power plant project in Alabama has sued the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) after TVA last week pulled out of the deal to sell the plant.

Attorneys for Franklin Haney, whose Nuclear Development LLC (NDLLC) group submitted a winning $ 111 million offer for the plant’s assets at auction in November 2016, filed a lawsuit November 30 in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama in Huntsville, charging TVA with breach of contract.

TVA said the sale could not be finalized because the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has not approved a transfer of the project’s construction permits from TVA to Bellefonte. Haney is asking for more than $ 60 million in damages if NDLLC’s purchase does not close.

“The Atomic Energy Act requires that the ownership of a nuclear facility be under the licensing of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and that (license transfer) is required for us to complete the purchase agreement,” TVA spokesman Jim Hopson said in a statement Friday, the day the sale was supposed to close.…

TVA Extends Deadline for Bellefonte Nuclear Plant Deal

November 12, 2018

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A Tennessee businessman now has until the end of November to finalize a two-year-old purchase agreement for the unfinished Bellefonte nuclear power plant in Alabama.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which began building the plant in 1974 but ended construction in 1988 amid a downturn in the nuclear power industry, on November 9 said it has extended the deadline in its agreement with Franklin Haney’s Nuclear Development LLC (NDLLC) from November 14 to November 30. Haney now has another 16 days to complete the agreement to buy the plant’s assets.

Haney last week said legal and regulatory issues have delayed the sale’s closure. The project also has been dogged by allegations of payments to secure federal government support. And one of the project’s potential electricity customers recently signaled it may back away from a deal to purchase power from the plant.

Haney, a real estate developer who grew his business by buying and building properties that he then leases to local, state, and federal government interests, was the highest bidder for Bellefonte’s assets in an auction in November 2016.…