Browns Ferry 1 is a TVA BWR that was shut down in 1985 and restarted in May 2007 after a roughly 22-year outage and a refurbishment estimated at $1.8bn. It is the main US precedent for returning a long-idled reactor to service, though it never entered decommissioning.
Background: Palisades fuel loading: Holtec restart timeline and what comes next · NRC reactor licensing process, explained
Current state
| Status | Restarted |
| Country | United States |
| Location | Athens, Alabama |
| Plant | Browns Ferry |
| Unit | 1 |
| Operator | Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) |
| Reactor type | BWR |
| Restart type | Retired-plant restart |
| Shut down | 1985 |
| Restarted | 2007-05-21 |
| Years offline | 21.9 |
| Regulator | NRC approved restart in May 2007 |
| Cost estimate | USD 1.8bn |
Notes
Historical precedent (idled, not retired). WNN gives 1,155 MWe (likely gross); net capacity not recorded. shut down year-only (TVA shut the units in 1985); UCS describes a 'nearly 22 year outage'. restart type "Retired-plant restart" used for a long-term idled unit.
Timeline
- 1985 — TVA shut down all three Browns Ferry reactors. (source)
- 2002-05 — TVA's board decided to spend about $1.8bn to restart unit 1. (source)
- 2007-05-15 — The NRC authorised the restart of unit 1 after an extensive refurbishment. (source)
- 2007-05-21 — TVA restarted unit 1; it reached criticality on 22 May. (source)
The timeline is append-only: corrections are added as new entries. Stated targets appear in the current-state table, never as milestones.
NNN coverage
About Tennessee Valley Authority
- NRC approves TVA’s Clinch River BWRX-300 permit 2026-10-01
- NNN Daily Brief — July 12, 2026 2026-07-12
- TVA's 2026 IRP puts advanced nuclear in the grid plan 2026-07-12
- The 7 nuclear stories that mattered this week 2026-10-03
- Nuclear power for data centers, explained: every deal tracked 2026-10-01
- Bechtel splits with TerraPower on Natrium, files 200-job WARN notice 2026-09-20
Related units
- Bruce A Unit 1 Restarted · Canada
- Bruce A Unit 2 Restarted · Canada
- Crane Clean Energy Center (Three Mile Island Unit 1) Refurbishment · United States
- Duane Arnold Energy Center Under review · United States
- Indian Point Unit 2 Proposed · United States
- Indian Point Unit 3 Proposed · United States
- Palisades Nuclear Plant Fuel load · United States
See all 45 units in the Nuclear Plant Restarts Tracker →
Sources
- TVA restarts Brown Ferry 1 — World Nuclear News, checked 2026-10-11
- NRC Gives Go-Ahead For Browns Ferry-1 Restart — NucNet, checked 2026-10-11
- Fission Stories #44: Browns Ferry – Back to the Future — Union of Concerned Scientists, checked 2026-10-11