Babcock and Wilcox (B&W) has been contracted to design and build two steam generators for Bellefonte unit 1, pending a final decision by Tennessee Valley Authority on the completion of the partially constructed reactor.

The announcement comes one week after Areva was selected for work including the ”engineering, licensing and procurement of long lead time materials in support of a possible start-up date in the 2018–9 timeframe.” One part of that work is a digital instrumentation and control system.

Despite no formal board decision on whether to go ahead with its preferred option of completing the pressurized water reactor, TVA has set aside $248 million in its fiscal 2011 budget for work towards that aim. The official decision by the board, which would trigger B&W to start work, should come in the first half of 2011.

B&W’s once-through steam generators are scheduled to be delivered to the site in 2015 if the go ahead is given. Weighing just less than 500 tonnes each, they which will be manufactured in B&W’s Cambridge facility in Ontario, Canada. The contract is a continuation of the involvement of B&W with Bellefonte; it supplied the original 1213 MWe reactors to the plant which began construction in 1974 before being suspended in 1988.

President of B&W Nuclear Energy, Chris Mowry said: ”B&W has a long history at Bellefonte, and we are very pleased that TVA selected our steam generator technology to complement the B&W designed reactor at the plant.”