Canceled nuclear plant site targeted by paragliders

Notes: The news report noted that Trousdale County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to a complaint about paragliders above the Tennessee Valley Authority site and that there were witnesses who saw the paragliders coming down in that area, including one who parachuted into a cooling tower.

The report added that the three paragliders were part of a group of trained athletes that record their activities and post them online. They were charged with trespassing and currently await a court date.

About Hartsville: Hartsville is a canceled nuclear power plant project located near the town of the same name. TVA was building the plant and planned to operate its four planned General Electric boiling water reactors.

Construction began at the site in 1975. Two of the reactors were canceled in March 1983, and the other two met the same fate in August 1984.

TVA had acquired the land along the Cumberland River in the late 1960s for construction of the plant, which was expected to be ready for the projected electricity demand of the 1980s.

Reportedly, there are plans to turn 550 acres of the 1,940-acre property into an industrial park. Already occupying part of the site is the Trousdale Turner Correctional Center, a private prison that began operations in 2016.