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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Last weekend, licensed reactor operators at the Tennessee Valley Authority safely connected a new source of nuclear power to its electric system. It is an historic moment for the nuclear industry because it is the first new U.S. nuclear generation of the 21st century. The new source of nuclear power is coming from TVA's Watts Bar reactor Unit 2 located 50 miles north of Chattanooga, Tennessee.
This achievement was made possible by years of effort by numerous TVA employees, leaders and workers alike, as well as teams of regulators, contractors, advisors, and members of the TVA Nuclear Oversight Committee, including Dr. Marilyn Brown, Brook Byers Professor of Sustainable Systems at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Brown has chaired the TVA's Nuclear Oversight Committee for most of the last five years when the bulk of the construction of the new unit took pace and during two terms as an appointee by President Obama to the TVA Board of Directors.
When TVA's reactor operators safely connected Watts Bar Unit 2 to the TVA electric system this weekend, the nuclear-powered electricity output from Unit 2 was delivered for the first time to TVA's customers. These customers include families, businesses and industries across seven states, including a portion of northern Georgia. For the past several decades,TVA's nuclear power has provided some of the least-cost electricity in its system. And, as noted by Dr. Brown, "Nuclear energy provides one of the major opportunities for reducing greenhouse gas emissions since it is essentially a carbon-free resource."
