East Tennessee

===Energy===
[[File:Watts Bar-4.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|[[Watts Bar Nuclear Plant]] in [[Rhea County, Tennessee|Rhea County]] is home to the newest operating nuclear reactors in the United States.<ref>{{cite news |last=Blau |first=Max |url=http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/20/us/tennessee-nuclear-power-plant/index.html |title=First new US nuclear reactor in 20 years goes live |work=CNN |publisher=Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. |date=October 20, 2016 |access-date=2016-10-20 }}</ref>]]
The [[Tennessee Valley Authority]] (TVA) has its administrative operations headquartered in Knoxville and power operations headquartered in Chattanooga, and provides nearly all of East Tennessee's electricity. TVA operates the [[Sequoyah Nuclear Plant|Sequoyah]] and [[Watts Bar Nuclear Plant|Watts Bar]] nuclear plants in [[Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee|Soddy-Daisy]] and [[Rhea County, Tennessee|Rhea County]], respectively, the [[Kingston Fossil Plant|Kingston]] and [[Bull Run Fossil Plant|Bull Run]] coal-fired plants, the latter of which is near Oak Ridge, the John Sevier [[combined cycle power plant|combined cycle]] natural gas-fired plant near [[Rogersville, Tennessee|Rogersville]], the [[Raccoon Mountain Pumped-Storage Plant]] near Chattanooga, a [[Wind power in Tennessee#Buffalo Mountain|wind-powered facility near Oak Ridge]], and several [[hydroelectric power in the United States|hydroelectric]] dams in East Tennessee.

The two newest civilian [[Nuclear reactor|nuclear power reactors]] in the United States are located at the Watts Bar Nuclear Plant. Unit 1 began operation in 1996 and Unit 2 started operating in 2016, making it the only new nuclear power reactor to begin operation in the United States in the 21st century.<ref>{{cite news|last=Mooney|first=Chris|date=June 17, 2016|title=It's the first new U.S. nuclear reactor in decades. And climate change has made that a very big deal|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/06/17/the-u-s-is-powering-up-its-first-new-nuclear-reactor-in-decades/|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|access-date=June 4, 2020}}</ref> Officials at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the TVA are studying advancements in nuclear power as an energy source in a joint effort, including [[small modular reactor]]s.<ref name="smallmodreactor">{{cite web |title=ORNL, TVA sign agreement to collaborate on advanced reactor technologies |url=https://www.ornl.gov/news/ornl-tva-sign-agreement-collaborate-advanced-reactor-technologies |website=[[Oak Ridge National Laboratory]] |access-date=October 7, 2020 |date=February 19, 2020}}</ref>