Nuclear Reactors 210 - Delays and Cost Overruns Plague New Reactor Construction at Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Georgia
In 2006, Southern Nuclear applied for an Early Site Permit for the construction of two new power reactors at the Vogtle power plant in Georgia to join the two existing reactors. In 2008, Southern Nuclear applied for a Combined Construction and Operating License for the two new reactors. Shortly thereafter, the Georgia Power Company (GP) signed a contract with Westinghouse to build two AP1000 reactors on the Vogtle site. The Georgia Public Service Commission (GPSC) approved the application in March of 2009. The Vogtle reactors will be among the first to be constructed in the United States in decades. Many hailed the deal as a sign of a "nuclear renaissance."
In August of 2009, an Early Site Permit and a Limited Work Authorization was issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the new reactors at Vogtle. Unit 3 was due to be operational in 2016 and Unit 4 would follow in 2017. The projected cost for both reactors was fourteen billion dollars. Georgia Power's was going to pay about six billion with the rest split between several other companies.
In early 2010, the U.S. government announced that it would create over eight billion dollars in federal loan guarantees for the project. In 2012, the NRC approved the construction license for the two new reactors at Vogtle. Because of the disaster at Fukushima in early 2011, critics of the Vogtle project said that the problems at Fukushima should be considered before the reactors were built. Some critics filed a lawsuit to stop construction but the suit was thrown out in mid-2012.
In March of 2013, the first concrete was poured for Units 3 and 4 at Vogtle. By June of 2013, the project was behind schedule by fourteen months. In early 2014, the U.S. Department of Energy approved a six and one half billion dollar loan guarantee but waive some of the usual fees for such a guarantee. Westinghouse refused to give GP and the GPSC a firm date for project completion until January 2015 when they said that the project would be delayed by another eighteen months. Now Unit 3 would be operation in mid-2019 and Unit 4 in 2020.
GP has estimated that the cost of the delay would be about seven hundred million dollars. In addition to that, GP and Westinghouse had been arguing since 2012 about who would pay the billion dollar cost of previous delays and problems. GP has not agreed with the new schedule yet. GP says that it is skeptical that Westinghouse has done everything it could have done to prevent the new delay. The cost of the new delay will probably wind up being added to the ongoing lawsuits. Westinghouse says the delays were caused by design changes required by the NRC. GP says that the delays were caused by "ongoing issues with modules and overall contractor performance."
The new Units at Vogtle are using new designs, new materials and new components. There are new regulatory and licensing procedures. Delays and cost overruns in nuclear construction projects are so common that the GPSC is constantly updating the cost of potential delays for up to four years in the future. It was hoped that the Vogtle project would demonstrate that constructing new nuclear power reactors would be economical even with the flood of cheap natural gas and the lower cost of gas fired power plants in the U.S. Unfortunately for nuclear supporters, the delays and cost overruns at Vogtle may be doing just the opposite.
Vogtle construction site:
