ACEC Energy Committee Tours TVA and Oak Ridge Facilities
ACEC’s Energy Committee spent two days this week as guests of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), touring energy facilities in and around Knoxville, visiting TVA’s Bull Run and Clinch River sites, Kingston Fossil Plant, and key projects at the campus of ORNL.
At Bull Run, Type One Energy and TVA submitted Tennessee’s first fusion facility license in January 2026, establishing a regulatory pathway that other states may follow. Construction of the Infinity One prototype is underway and will continue through 2026, with operation targeted for 2029. A commercial plant, Infinity Two, is planned to follow. Type One Energy is establishing its East Tennessee headquarters and projects more than 300 new jobs.
At Clinch River, TVA’s small modular reactor project just got a big vote of confidence — federal regulators issued a favorable safety review, with a public hearing set for August 12 in Oak Ridge. Backed by $800 million in DOE funding and built by an integrated team of Bechtel, Sargent & Lundy, and GE Hitachi, this could become the first next-generation SMR construction permit approved in the U.S. The group also saw TVA’s Kingston Fossil Plant, still running on coal today, right next to the site of its replacement: a new natural gas facility representing the next step in the plant’s transition.
At ORNL, the Committee had the opportunity to visit Oak Ridge’s Leadership Computing Facility. ORNL, IBM, and Cleveland Clinic recently used a quantum processor alongside the Laboratory’s Frontier supercomputer (the third most powerful in the world) to model fusion fuel materials, a first under the Genesis Mission, the DOE’s initiative launched to build the world’s most powerful AI-driven scientific platform. A new ORNL/Company Lab partnership connects entrepreneurs to the lab’s intellectual property, researchers, and facilities.
Finally, the nuclear portion of the ORNL visit included a tour of the Graphite Reactor, the world’s first continuously operated nuclear reactor, and the High Flux Isotope Reactor, one of the highest-flux reactor-based neutron sources in the world. At the Manufacturing Demonstration Facility, the Committee saw advanced fabrication techniques for nuclear and energy components.
Check out this brief video with Committee Chair Hillary VonAhsen (Kimley Horn) and ORNL’s Gale Hauck about the important role nuclear energy plays in the America’s quest for energy independence.
ACEC Energy SVP and Committee Staff Liaison Nando Gomez called the two-day Tennessee trip “incredible,” and thanked the TVA and ORNL for their hospitality in giving Committee members “a firsthand look at where American energy innovation is headed next.”
