Inside TVA’s Nuclear Future: A Tour of Sequoyah Nuclear Plant

An inside look at how Sequoyah powers 1.3 million homes and anchors TVA’s growing nuclear corridor across the Valley.

Driving to the Sequoyah Nuclear Plant, the power lines multiplied with every mile. But what truly marked the approach was rounding a curve and seeing the cooling towers — two colossal stacks of concrete — rise into view. No steam drifted from them that day, the river conditions didn’t call for it, but the sight alone conveyed the scale of human engineering.

Cooling towers stand at the Sequoyah Nuclear Plant in Soddy-Daisy, Tenn., Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025. To the right of the towers is the discharge channel, where cooled water from the plant is released after passing through the tertiary loop. (The Clarity Digest/Marc Schwartz)

On Tuesday, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest public utility, invited reporters to tour the Sequoyah Nuclear Plant in Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee. Sequoyah is one of three operating nuclear plants in the TVA’s fleet. The tour showed how the plant operates and how TVA plans to keep it running for decades. It also detailed the work in each refueling outage, the realities of nuclear fuel and waste, and the Valley’s growing role as a national corridor for nuclear power.