A private consortium picked Tennessee’s Trousdale County as the site of a $1.1-billion high-tech uranium enrichment plant to make fuel for nuclear reactors, company officials announced Monday, Sept. 9.

The site in Hartsville is on property where the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) began building a nuclear power plant more than two decades ago before eventually abandoning construction.

Hartsville was selected by Louisiana Energy Services (LES), a consortium of U.S. and European companies including Westinghouse and three major domestic power companies. The other finalist was a site adjacent to where TVA began building a nuclear power plant years ago near Hollywood, AL.

LES said its next step is to buy the land, which is now owned by a regional development authority in a five-county region north of Nashville.

LES officials said they hope to have a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by 2004, begin construction in 2005 and begin production in 2006 or 2007.

LES officials said one of their first tasks will be to inform the public about the plant’s function.

The Tennessee Environmental Council said it would fight the plant proposal.

"This type of uranium enrichment does not fit with U.S. policy, and the generation of tons of radioactive waste is not welcome in Tennessee," Council Director Will Callaway said in a statement.

LES President and CEO George E. Dials said about 400 people would be hired to build the new plant — at 4.6 million square feet about the size of 25 Wal-Mart Supercenters — and about 250 would be hired to work there permanently.

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