‘My father actually built that thing’: Hartsville’s nuclear cooling tower demolished as TVA looks to future of nuclear energy production

HARTSVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — It was a momentous day in Hartsville history as the nuclear cooling tower, which stood 540 feet tall for nearly five decades, was demolished on Thursday morning.

Now, the Tennessee Valley Authority is charting a new course for the region’s future energy needs.

“I think TVA has realized over the years that that cooling tower was not going to really serve any useful purpose,” Scott Brooks with TVA told News 2. “We were not going to complete any of those four reactors that were early under construction. That site is used for a number of other things, and it was really just in the way and so now removing that cooling tower makes way for the future and other possibilities at that site.”

For Hartsville locals, the nuclear cooling tower was a landmark that represented a time of job creation and economic prosperity.

“My father actually built that thing,” Kelly Key told News 2.

Key said he remembers his father working at the site when he was in high school.

“What I really remember was we owned a farm, and we were in debt, and that job was so good and so opportunistic that it probably saved the farm,” he added.

Conilla Robinson’s parents also helped with the tower’s construction.

“Many people came into this area just to work… and then when it was decommissioned in ’84; mom and dad were on unemployment for a little while until they could find other work,” Robinson explained.

TVA officials said at one point they had about 17 nuclear reactors either planned or under construction across the region in the ’70s and early ’80s. Today, the TVA has seven total, including two in Tennessee: Watts Bar in Spring City and Sequoyah in Soddy-Daisy.

“We’re undertaking a new nuclear renaissance where we’re looking at small modular reactors, smaller units than the big ones that we’ve previously built,” Brooks explained.

Now in 2025, nuclear energy makes up about 40% of the TVA’s annual power generation, and the TVA is still planning to build more power plants in the region including a natural gas plant proposed for Humphreys County. The TVA expects to generate enough power for nearly four million more homes over the next decade.