![]() We actively give, engage and collaborate whenever possible.Īt Southern Nuclear, our people are our core. We are committed to serving the communities nearest to each of our operating plants. For more than 40 years, the company has operated nuclear energy facilities at the highest levels of safety and reliability, creating carbon-free electricity for millions of homes and businesses. Its costs and delays could deter other utilities from building such plants, even though they generate electricity without releasing climate-changing carbon emissions.Southern Nuclear is a leader among the nation’s nuclear energy operators, running six units for Alabama Power and Georgia Power. Vogtle is the only nuclear plant under construction in the United States. The two new units combined are projected to produce enough power for more than 500,000 homes and businesses. The company is now projected to spend more than $10.5 billion on construction and $3.5 billion on financing. Southern Company has written off $3.26 billion in Vogtle losses since 2018, suggesting it won't recoup those costs.Ĭommissioners earlier said they would presume $5.7 billion of Georgia's Power's spending as prudent. That process will determine how much the company's customers will pay for Vogtle, as opposed to whether shareholders will have to absorb additional losses. Deciding whether Georgia Power's spending decisions were prudent is supposed to begin once fuel is loaded into the fourth reactor. Georgia Power's 2.7 million customers are already paying part of the financing cost and state regulators have approved a monthly rate increase of at least $3.78 a month as soon as the third unit reaches commercial operation.īut the elected five-member Public Service Commission will decide later who pays for the remainder of the costs. Add in 3.7 billion that Westinghouse paid to the Vogtle owners to walk away from building the reactors and the total nears $35 billion. Smaller shares are owned by Oglethorpe Power Corporation, which provides electricity to member-owned cooperatives, the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and the city of Dalton.Ĭurrently, the owners are projected to pay $31 billion in capital and financing costs, Associated Press calculations show. Georgia Power currently owns 45.7% of the reactors. In Georgia, almost every electric customer will pay for Vogtle. The company says unit 4 is supposed to reach commercial operation by March 2024. Once fuel is loaded, operators will conduct tests and begin splitting atoms, which creates the high temperatures that boil steam that drives turbines, which generates electricity. All of the fuel has already been inspected and is being stored at the site. Georgia Power said that it's making final preparations to load the 157 fuel assemblies into the reactor core. Two older reactors are also operating at Plant Vogtle. The reactor was producing power at 98% of capacity on Friday, according to Nuclear Regulatory Commission records. The current deadline to reliably send electricity to the grid came after a leaking turbine seal forced another month's wait. The milestone comes as a Monday deadline nears for unit 3 to reach commercial operation. Georgia Power, a unit of Atlanta-based Southern Company has said it anticipates loading fuel by the end of September. It's a key step toward completing the two-reactor project, which is seven years late and $17 billion over budget. Some Alabama and Florida utilities have also contracted to buy Vogtle's power. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that Georgia Power Company and its co-owners can begin loading fuel into unit 4 at Plant Vogtle, southeast of Augusta. Federal regulators have approved plans to load radioactive fuel into a second new nuclear reactor in Georgia.
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