Yellow Creek Nuclear Power Plant

The Yellow Creek Nuclear Power Plant is a canceled nuclear power plant project near Iuka, Mississippi. It was originally planned to have two 1,350-MW (output) reactors operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The steam turbine-generator sets were provided by General Electric.

The reactors were "System 80" pressurized water reactors built by Combustion Engineering in Chattanooga TN. Three similar reactors were installed at Palo Verde Nuclear Plant in Arizona.

Construction on the reactors began in 1978, but in August 1984, the TVA officially canceled construction of the reactors (with about 30% of the plant complete, construction having ceased (due to suspension of the work) de facto in 1982) because the cost to finish construction had risen dramatically and also because of lower electricity demand.

Following TVA's cancellation, the partially completed site with infrastructure already in place underwent reconstruction as a site for NASA to build solid rocket motors. Construction was about 80% complete when Congress pulled funding on the site in 1993. The cancellation of this project led to a poor economy and high unemployment in the area.

Today, some buildings remain on the site including what was to be a reactor, the accompanying turbine building, and a circular base for the plant's cooling tower. The site is close to the tripoint of Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee, on a peninsula surrounded by Pickwick Lake. The site's namesake creek, whose original outlet comprised the western arm of the lake, was almost completely captured by the lake or channelized into the uppermost reach of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway by the time plant construction ceased.