NATION : Debt-Ridden TVA to Lay Off 3,000
The Tennessee Valley Authority announced today that it will end the jobs of 3,000 employees in a battle for the survival of the federal utility founded by Franklin D. Roosevelt to bring light to Appalachia.
TVA Chairman Marvin Runyon, who has laid off 7,000 other employees since taking office in January, 1988, said the new cuts are needed to keep electric rates stable and make the New Deal-era agency competitive with private utilities.
TVA embarked on the nation’s most ambitious nuclear power program with 17 reactors in the 1960s. But declining power sales and soaring cost overruns forced the cancellation of eight reactors and left TVA saddled with a $17-billion debt.
The latest job cuts will be carried out within TVA’s nuclear power division within the next 18 months, Runyon said.
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