The Nuclear Regulatory Commission agreed today to renew operating licenses for two existing reactors at the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Burke County.

The plant’s parent company, Southern Nuclear Operating Company, applied for the renewals on June 27, 2007. The plant’s pressurized-water reactors are located along the Savannah River 25 miles south of Augusta.

The new operating licenses will expire Jan. 16, 2047, for Unit 1; and on Feb. 9, 2049, for Unit 2, according to the NRC, which held a series of public meetings in the past year to discuss the re-licensing application.

The commission’s staff conducted a series of investigations focusing on the site’s safety and environmental issues and concluded in December 2008 there were no issues that would preclude the license renewal.

The relicensing is one of several important regulatory actions under way at the Vogtle site.

Regulators are continuing to process Southern Nuclear’s application for an early site permit and combined operating license that would allow the construction of two additional reactors. Such a project could bring as many as 3,000 to 4,000 construction jobs, with a lesser number of permanent positions once the reactors were completed and online.

Southern Nuclear expects to earn regulatory approval of its early site permit later this year and could receive its combined license in 2011. The new units, to be manufactured by Westinghouse, could be online in 2016 or 2017.

The existing Vogtle units relicensed on Wednesday represent the 53rd and 54th reactor licenses renewed by the NRC. Twelve other applications are under review. A complete listing of renewal applications can be found on the NRC Web site at: www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal.html.