Nuclear Development LLC loan assistance application to the Department of Energy. This application was filed in an attempt to acquire the Bellefonte Nuclear Power Plant, located in northeastern Alabama, from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Franklin Haney Sr., real-estate developer and founder of Nuclear Development LLC, contributed $1 million to President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee — a contribution that was later investigated by federal prosecutors along with the inaugural committee itself. 

The Wall Street Journal reported in August 2018 that Haney had agreed to pay Michael Cohen, then the president’s personal attorney, $10 million to help get funding for the Bellefonte project. A tentative deal to sell the power plant was scrapped in November 2018, with the TVA saying that Nuclear Development hadn’t secured the proper regulatory approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in order to sell the plant. Haney’s company sued the TVA, and in May 2019, a federal judge ruled that the agreement to sell must remain in place. 

You can view more records regarding Nuclear Development LLC’s attempted acquisition of Bellefonte Nuclear Plant here, and you can view the 2017–2019 calendars of former TVA CEO Bill Johnson, who met frequently with Haney, here. 

 

In these records: 

Pages 2–6: Application overview and list of application documents and components. 

Pages 8–9: Organizational charts for the Bellefonte Nuclear Plant. 

Page 12: Resolution dated March 1, 2016, signed by Haney, stating that Nuclear Development is authorized to acquire Bellefonte from the TVA and that it is also authorized to submit an application for a loan from the Energy Department to finance the acquisition. 

Pages 13–24: Project description for the acquisition of Bellefonte.

Pages 25–60: Plans for the technical systems at the nuclear plant, including information on safety features and reactor protection systems.

Pages 61–62: Legal and regulatory information, including a timeline for construction permits and regulatory approvals. 

Pages 63–95: Business plan outlined in the application, including market analysis.

Pages 96–100: Application certification, validation statement, and a letter of commitment signed in March 2016 by Franklin Haney. 

Pages 105–115: Baseline schedule of project and project risks and mitigation strategies

Page 140: A statement of state and local support, which says: “Both the local official and Alabama’s governor and congressmen strongly favor this project. […] The state is also likely to provide job training grants.” 

Page 142: A statement on the nuclear plant’s “Effect on Anthropogenic Emissions” (greenhouse gases contributing to climate change). 

Pages 166–171: Technical information about infrastructure on site, including process interfaces for water and waste as well as electrical transmission. 

Pages 175–186: An overview of the project execution strategy, which includes information on engineering, operations, and safety. 

Page 200: A statement of intellectual property, including rights and licenses, related to the proposed Bellefonte plant’s operations.

Page 202: Heavily redacted schedule of the project dates and timeline. 

Pages 256–262: Legal and regulatory information concerning the project, including permits and approvals pending with U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Alabama Historical Commission, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.  

Pages 272–276: Description of environmental impact statements performed by the TVA regarding the Bellefonte plant. 

Pages 278–279: Statement of applicant’s capabilities, which mostly describes the relevant experience of Haney on this project.

Page 289: Statement about the project’s anticipated job creation and retention.

Pages 294–298: Heavily redacted financial plan for the project, including loan information. 

Pages 306–309: Certification and validation statement signed by Haney in November 2016 for the Energy Department loan application.

Pages 319–470: A mostly redacted financial analysis of the project.