New Georgia nuclear reactor enters operation, making history
American Military News by Drew Kann - The Atlanta Journal Constitution August 02, 2023
The first of the two new units at Plant Vogtle, in east Georgia, has officially entered commercial service, Georgia Power announced Monday, making history as the first nuclear reactor built from scratch in the U.S. in more than three decades.
The reactor, Unit 3, is expected to produce 1,100 megawatts of electricity at full tilt, enough to power roughly 500,000 homes and businesses. Georgia Power has said the unit and its twin, Unit 4 — which is expected to be finished by the end of the first quarter of 2024 — will be in service for the next 60 to 80 years.
The two reactors south of Augusta were pitched as part of a nuclear revival that would usher in vast amounts of carbon-free electricity. But both units will finish years behind schedule and billions over initial cost estimates.
Still, completion of Unit 3 is a major step for the country’s nuclear industry, which federal officials say must be revived for the U.S. to achieve its climate goals and reclaim energy independence. And though work continues to bring Unit 4 across the finish line, it marks the beginning of the end of a tumultuous quest to bring the reactors online.
During a ceremony Monday on a hill overlooking the site, with thick fog obscuring the cooling towers, Georgia Power president and CEO Kim Greene called the milestone a “culmination of years of hard work and sacrifices by many.”
“Along the way, we faced unprecedented challenges, skepticism, even doubt,” she said. “But we stayed the course.”
Mike Smith, the president and CEO of Oglethorpe Power, which owns the second-largest share of the two new units, said in a statement that Unit 3′s completion “is a testament to the important investments we’re making that drive us toward a cleaner and more sustainable energy future.” Once Unit 4 is finished, Smith said Oglethorpe — a power supply cooperative whose members serve 4.4 million Georgians — will source more than half of the electricity it provides from nuclear power.
Unit 3 came online Monday more than seven years after it was initially expected to enter service. Unit 4, meanwhile, is more than six years behind schedule.
The delays have pushed the total price tag for the whole project above $35 billion, more than double what the company initially forecast — and still growing. Critics have blamed Georgia Power and its parent, Southern Company, for the rising costs, which they say Vogtle owners and shareholders should pay for, not customers.
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