Threat evacuates Vogtle work site

 The construction site for Plant Vogtle's two new reactors was evacuated today after a bomb threat was received by the site's construction manager.

"Earlier today, Shaw was alerted to a potential situation at the Vogtle project involving a bomb threat," said Gentry Brann, spokeswoman for The Shaw Group, which is managing the project on behalf of Southern Nuclear.

"We followed our emergency response plan for this type of threat, which included working with our client and calling in law enforcement, who performed a thorough inspection and advised us that the site was cleared for employees to return to work," Brann  said.

She would not answer questions about the nature of the threat, or how it was conveyed, other than to say law enforcement officials were notified of the incident. She also refused to say if this is the first such threat made against the company or its Vogtle project.

The 42-acre construction zone is adjacent to Vogtle's existing Units 1 and 2, which were unaffected by the bomb threat.

The Vogtle site has bustled with activity since last August, when the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued an Early Site Permit allowing limited work to be performed. Crews have been working 20 hours a day, seven days a week, to move almost 4 million cubic yards of dirt in preparation for above-ground construction that could begin in 2011 or 2012.

The initial site preparation work under way involved about 320 workers in September. That work force has since grown to more than 600. At the peak of construction in 2013-14, as many as 3,500 workers are expected to be at the site.