He said he had not meant to imply there were no serious safety problems at Watts Bar.

The agency's Watts Bar 1, where engineers plan to load fuel next year, is the only nuclear reactor still being built in the United States.

Watts Bar is the youngest reactor in the United States, having opened in 1996.

Construction had been halted at Watts Bar 1 for years.

The T.V.A. is now studying whether to finish Watts Bar 2, where most work stopped in 1988.

Of 108 commercial reactors in this country, for now, only Watts Bar qualifies.

But those who spoke liked Watts Bar even less as a military plant.

Watts Bar supplies enough electricity for about 750,000 households in the Tennessee Valley.

Sequoyah units 1 & 2, as well as their sister plant at Watts Bar, both have ice condenser containment systems.

This spring, when Watts Bar is scheduled to shut for refueling, they will take the targets out and recover the tritium.