SHELL BLUFF, Ga. --- Workers at Plant Vogtle are toiling 20 hours a day to accelerate progress on what is likely to become the nation's first new commercial reactor project in decades.
"Everyone anticipates, and recognizes, that according to our industry peers, Vogtle will be the first," said David Jones, Southern Nuclear's site vice president for Units 3 and 4. "It is part of our job to make that happen."
The company received an early site permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in August and has moved more than 320 workers and a fleet of heavy equipment to the Burke County site, where 4 million cubic yards of dirt are being excavated to prepare for the $14 billion construction project.
If all goes well with permitting and construction, the new units -- producing 1,170 megawatts apiece -- will go online in 2016 and 2017, Mr. Jones said. "I don't know of any other utility that has published a schedule that advanced."
Across the nation, the NRC is evaluating 16 similar applications for 24 new reactors, but many of those projects remain on the drawing board and most are not as advanced as Vogtle's, which expects to receive its major final hurdle -- a combined operating license -- in 2011.
Vogtle is among only four new nuclear projects that have received an early site permit, said NRC spokesman Roger Hannah. The other three are the Clinton site in Illinois, which has not yet filed a combined operating license request; the Grand Gulf project in Mississippi; and the North Anna project in Virginia, which remains in the environmental-impact-statement phase, he said.
The existing units at Vogtle were among the last in the nation's current fleet of nuclear-generating plants to go online in the late 1980s, Mr. Jones said. Now the site is poised to lead the nation in what some have dubbed a "Nuclear Renaissance" that will bring jobs and electricity to growing areas, especially in the South.
"There are a lot of reasons for added confidence today in meeting that schedule that we didn't have in the 1970s," he said.
Decades ago, nuclear projects faced costly delays because of changes in rules and specifications that occurred as reactors were being planned and built. The combined operating license program, devised by the NRC to streamline the permitting process, simultaneously authorizes reactor construction and operation.
"It's a big change," he said. "In the '70s and '80s, you got a construction license to build it over five years, and then you had to apply for a license to operate it," he said. "There was a lot of risk of changing expectations and changing technology that we don't have this time around."
Much of the current work is focused on excavating the site to a depth of 95 feet, after which much of the dirt will be repacked to create a firm foundation.
"We've recently gone to two 10-hour shifts, six days a week," said Mark Tanner, the site's engineering construction liaison. "Right now they are moving about 20,000 cubic yards per shift."
The 42-acre site, surrounded by more than seven miles of silt fence and erosion barriers, includes 79 wells that capture and remove water that seeps into the area during construction.
Once online, the new reactors will roughly double the site's 850-person work force to 1,700. During the peak of construction, expected to occur in 2013-14, about 3,000 to 3,500 workers will be employed.
In addition to the contractors at work on the new site, almost 800 temporary workers were at Vogtle's Unit 1 this week to refuel the reactor during one of its rare -- and costly -- scheduled outages.
Ellie Daniel, a corporate communications specialist at the site, said the 25-day shutdown began Sept. 20 to allow scheduled maintenance and major refueling operations that are performed every 18 months. Unit 2 will undergo a similar refueling shutdown next spring. Such shutdowns cost the owners about $1 million a day in lost revenue.
Reach Rob Pavey at 868-1222, ext. 119, or rob.pavey@augustachronicle.com.
BY THE NUMBERS
4 million
cubic yards of dirt being excavated before the construction of two new reactors
$14 billion
cost of the construction project
1,170
megawatts each reactor will produce when they go online in 2016 or 2017
The Augusta Chronicle ©2010 Morris Communications, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
3000 new good paying jobs for 6 or 7 years plus two brand new state of the art electric generating facilities.. Thanks Southern Company.
There may be employment but Georgia Power rate payers are paying for the highest-cost option. Energy effeciciency and conservation are the least-cost options that should pursued first. Instead, the rate payers are going to get whacked for costly recators that could cost $10 billion each. Plus, the company doesn't have any private financing yet and Wall Street is balking at these risky projects. A bad deal for the rate payers and the economy.
I could care less about my rate. I want the construction of this reactor and many more. People that believe conservation is going to give us more energy are fooling themselves. One day we are going to see rolling blackouts in the South if we don't get to building power plants. We should build more coal plants too. I am so tired of tree huggers holding up progress. Capitalism and workforce encouragement is the only thing that will save this country along with The FAIR TAX, we need it now.
So "Energy effeciciency and conservation are the least-cost options that should pursued first". I guess that's not really working - if there's a need to build these units across the country. Oh, and one thing that this article doesn't mention is the fact that the Nuke plants across the US had an original expected life-span of 40 years. It's a good thing that after extensive reviews and inspections of the plants that are approaching, or have reached their 40 year mark are doing good, and liscenses have been extended. Risky project? - Sounds like a pretty sound risk to me: you build something that produces electricity, and people have lights, water, heating and cooling in their house...
I wish we would start digging and building as soon as we approve projects like they did.
SCEagle Eye............I'm sure you are tired from pedaling your generator to log on and complain. Conservation only goes so far......after that you still need more energy. Those in California that won't let anyone build power plants, then complain when they have summer brown outs are the epitome of hypocrisy.
SCEagle Eye, you're in SC right? Then you don't get your power from Southern Company. Quit complaining. And they havn't secured private financing because they're paying for them out of pocket. i.e no financing required. That means no finance charges or interest. Which on the $14Billion, not $20Billion like you said, is about $300Million dollars. Sounds like they're saving their customers a bunch of money to me.
The population is growing steadily. Energy efficiency and conservation are helpful, and have their place, but we are growing faster than what those two actions can provide.
Corgimom, you've nailed it. The biggest reason energy efficiency and conservation won't keep the lights on. Those parents who have kids in the house and want them out on their own can't possibly conserve enough in their home to power the homes of their kids, PLUS the jobs they'll need to move out on their own. Conservation and efficiency are very much needed so that fewer new plants have to be built.
SCEagle Eye - Do your homework before you show your ignorance in public. Blow out your candles and go back to bed hillbilly.
Plant Vogtle is going to be the guinea pig of the nuclear industry. They are trying to restart an industry that has been dormant for 30 years with a new reactor design that has not been certified. There will be endless delays due to regulation, skilled worker shortages, and nuclear grade material shortages. Yet Southern Co. is fighting to be the first utility to struggle with regulation and logistic hurdles because they bought a law that says all of the risk is on the wallets of Georgia Power ratepayers. We pay for the financing. We pay for the delays. We pay for the cost overruns. Lets not get too excited about a hole in the ground when all it is, is the start of utility experiment, which we are stuck blindly funding.