If you live in the Tennessee Valley (anywhere from Knoxville down to the Huntsville area), you may have seen the news about Bellefonte on Wednesday.
"The Tennessee Valley Authority said [Wednesday], it will slow down work at the Bellefonte Nuclear Plant site near Scottsboro, cut 400 positions, and reassess the need for the plant's completion."So how does this affect us? Here is the scoop from our perspective. Those affected by the cuts were given the following options: 1) stay at Bellefonte (they will be keeping some people onsite); 2) go to another TVA site; or 3) retire. In most cases the only option is really #2, so Daniel (and many of the others) are going to Watts Bar for the time being.
The last two days have been a flourish of phone calls and decisions about our future being made on the fly. To be honest, the news was not completely unexpected, but it is still a lot to process. We knew there would be a big announcement on Wednesday and that the changes could be swift, but we are still wrapping our minds around the fact that Daniel will start his training next week and then will go to Watts Bar the week after that.
We have a house to sell and are sad at the possibility of leaving all of the friends we have made. We were just starting to feel settled and now we will be starting over. Again. We know that moving on is the right thing at this time, but it is still sad and a little unsettling. Long-term, Daniel has some time to decide where he wants to be within the TVA organization (location and career-wise). Given the circumstance, it is actually a really good opportunity for him to find something he enjoys doing. And with a company this large, he can always move on to working somewhere else, doing something different if he has the mind to do so.
Mostly, we are incredibly grateful that Daniel still has a job and that TVA is taking care of a lot of the details. In 2009, we weren't so lucky when Daniel went through a layoff with another company, and subsequent 12 months of unemployment which led to us living apart for 5 months. That was a really stressful period in our lives. This time around should be a much easier transition, but that doesn't make it easy.
As soon as we can, we will get our house on the market and start the process of finding a new, temporary residence in Tennessee (most likely somewhere between Chattanooga and Knoxville). We aren't sure where we will be long term, so we are going to take our time making decisions like buying a new house. Please keep us in your prayers as we make this transition.
