SHELL BLUFF, Ga. ---At the C&J grocery on a stretch of River Road in eastern Burke County, customers trickle through in search of bait, Budweiser and lottery tickets.

If store owner John Durst has his way, there will be much more in the area.

"I wouldn't have bought this store if Plant Vogtle wasn't talking about expanding," he said. "It's a gamble that could really pay off."

Mr. Durst and countless others are watching carefully as the mammoth nuclear power plant's parent company contemplates adding two new reactors that would cost $6.4 billion -- and bring thousands of construction jobs to the area.

"Everybody's talking about it, hoping it will happen," he said. "I'd like to add gas pumps, propane sales. You'll see camping areas springing up everywhere, too."

Many county residents remember the veritable gold rush that followed the initial construction of Vogtle's two existing reactors, which went online in 1987 and 1989. At the peak of construction, almost 13,000 workers toiled night and day -- and spent their dollars in Burke County.

Today, the plant is relatively quiet, tucked within 3,100 wooded acres along the Savannah River. Its cooling towers -- a little less than twice the height of the Statue of Liberty -- jut 548 feet into the sky.

In the two decades since the plant was completed, many of the businesses that catered to transient workers have vanished.

But the legacy of Burke County's biggest taxpayer is everywhere in the form of new schools, medical buildings and county services.

"It's done an awful lot for a lot of people here," said Tommy Greer, who helped build Shell Bluff Country Store just a few miles from the plant. Even the store's wide-plank wood floors, he said, owe their existence to the nuclear power plant.

"They were boards used on scaffolding during construction," he said. "We made 'em into floors."

Behind the cash register, store clerk Teresa Youmans hears talk of the proposed expansion almost every day -- and has concluded Vogtle has as many fans in Burke County as the Bulldogs do in Athens.

"A lot of people down here are out of work," she said. "They're hoping for jobs -- any kind of jobs. My husband hopes to work there. People need this project. It's like ants: Pour the sugar, and they will come to it."

While the locals watch and wait, the plant's operator -- Southern Nuclear -- continues to wade through an ever-changing maze of regulatory and economic hurdles that must be jumped before the first steel trusses are lined with concrete.

Carol Boatright, a spokeswoman for the company, said the timetable will depend on how long it takes to gain approval from entities including the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Georgia Public Service Commission.

The company's application for an early site permit could be approved in 2009, she said, as could a request to the Public Service Commission to reduce construction costs by collecting money from ratepayers to offset interest costs during the construction phase.

If all goes as planned, she said, the company would expect NRC approval in 2011 for a combined operating license, which is a construction and operating license combined into one program. "Then we would anticipate the first unit online in 2016 and the second one in 2017," she said.

Nuclear technology has undergone many changes in the two decades since Vogtle's first towers rose from the coastal plain sand. Many components, including reactors, are prefabricated -- meaning there won't be as many workers brought to the site.

"I have heard an estimate, last week, of 3,000 and 4,000 on-site work," Ms. Boatright said. "Many parts are turned out at assembly centers in other locations."

Plant Vogtle was initially planned as a four-reactor site.

"When the economy changed, it was cut back to two reactors," Ms. Boatright said. "But the property is still there, the geology passed all the tests, and a lot of the initial planning was done way back when."

The site's suitability, she predicted, could help the Vogtle project move along more quickly than some of the other nuclear expansions proposed by other utility companies.

Burke County, with a population of barely 24,000, stands to benefit immensely -- regardless of how many construction jobs the project would create, said Jerry Long, executive director of Burke County's Development Authority.

"Probably the first things you'll see are fast food places, maybe a new hotel or something," he said. "But you'll surely see a rebirth of a lot of the trailer parks and convenience stores."

After construction, the county would benefit from increased tax base and the creation of 800 to 900 permanent jobs at the plant once it goes into operation.

For now, county officials can offer support, but the broader regulatory processes are out of reach of local politics.

"Something like this is a lot different from a regular factory or plant," Mr. Long said.

"It's more of a government process."

Reach Rob Pavey at 868-1222, ext. 119, or rob.pavey@augustachronicle.com.