Critics blast the ever-extending timeline and bloated budget of Plant Vogtle’s expansion. Supporters say the Georgia project is part of a nuclear revival.
Plant Vogtle's planned nuclear additions — units 3 and 4 — are pictured in July in eastern Georgia. | Georgia PowerGeorgia Power was set to reach a milestone last month and open the first of two long-awaited nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle. Then came a delay — and more uncertainty.
The Vogtle expansion’s arrival is a huge moment for the U.S. electric industry that experts and officials expect to ripple well beyond eastern Georgia. Never mind that the two new nuclear gems Southern is scrambling to add to its crown were supposed to be up and running in 2016 and 2017. Or that their cost has more than doubled to over $30 billion.
“Yes, we’ve had our challenges,” CEO Chris Womack said during the company’s annual meeting. “I’m confident that the state of Georgia and our customers, our company, the world, will be so proud of the work that we’ve done in bringing Vogtle online.” “We’re ecstatic that this project is going to be turned on and really respectful of the perseverance and grit that it took ... but I also think it sets up the U.S. nuclear renaissance very well in small modular reactors,” Shah told E&E News.
“The only technology to meet the demand that is currently available and proven are the AP1000 units that are just being built and finished at Vogtle,” he said. “Anything else is just sort of a pipe dream.”Plant Vogtle’s problems have been “the accumulation of quite a few design and construction deficiencies,” said Edwin Lyman, nuclear power safety director for the Union of Concerned Scientists.
“It’s not that simple to manufacture these complex components and just stamp them together like Legos,” Lyman said. Still, the recently trained Vogtle workforce is a prime reason to keep the ball rolling, Georgia Tech’s Biegalski said. With this expertise, he sees future projects being built quicker and at a lower cost.
While small modular reactors are worth researching in Biegalski’s view, he said the AP1000 design is the country’s “only option” for the immediate future of nuclear, he said.and other power companies are trying to crack the equation of cheaper and easier to build carbon-free nuclear power.the state’s first small modular reactors, eyeing a dozen units in partnership with a nuclear developer. Back in January, NuScale Power Corp.
Using a BWRX-300 design, TVA hopes to build a successful pilot and a fleet of potentially 20 small reactors to meet growing energy demands in the southeastern United States. Critics like Smith say utilities across the Southeast, such as TVA, Duke Energy Corp. and Dominion Energy Inc., are incentivized by a lack of energy market competition to build projects because they can profit with a rate of return guaranteed by state regulators.
The last nuclear plant to come online before Vogtle’s expansion, was TVA’s Watts Bar Unit 2, started in the 1970s and brought into operation in 2016.“They take our eye off the prize of really working with the technologies that we know can be done, can be modularly built out like solar and wind,” he said.POLITICO Pro reported
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