Nuclear

NRC approves nuclear fuel load at Vogtle Unit 3

NRC approves nuclear fuel load at Vogtle Unit 3
(Vogtle Unit 3 control room. Credit: Southern Nuclear)

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) authorized Southern Nuclear Operating Co. to begin fuel loading and operation at Vogtle Unit 3 in Georgia.

The unit is the first reactor to reach this stage under the NRC’s combined license process. The decision moves the 1,117 MW AP1000 generating unit out of NRC construction monitoring and into the regulatory body’s operating reactor oversight process.

On July 29, Southern Nuclear told the NRC that it had completed all inspections, tests, analyses and acceptance criteria needed to show Vogtle Unit 3 is ready for operation.

The milestone came with the receipt of the NRC’s so-called 103(g) finding, which signified that the new unit has been constructed and will be operated in conformance with the Combined License and NRC regulations.

In a statement, Southern Nuclear said that work would proceed over the next several weeks to load fuel, which is already on site, into the reactor. This step would be followed by several months of startup testing and operations.

The company said startup testing is designed to demonstrate the integrated operation of the primary coolant system and steam supply system at design temperature and pressure with fuel inside the reactor. It said that operators also would bring the plant from cold shutdown to initial criticality, synchronize the unit to the grid and systematically raise power to 100%.

The Vogtle Electric Generating Plant, located near Waynesboro in eastern Georgia near the South Carolina border, is jointly owned by Georgia Power (45.7%), Oglethorpe Power Corporation (30%), Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (22.7%) and Dalton Utilities (1.6%).

Plant Vogtle units 3 and 4 are on track be the first new nuclear units built in the United States in the last three decades. But the two new units are years behind schedule and billions of dollars over their original budget.

In late June, a Georgia court was asked to decide whether two partners in the 2,200 MW nuclear power project can cap their exposure to rising construction costs and hand over at least a portion of their ownership stake in the venture.

The dispute pitted Oglethorpe Power Corp. and the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia against Georgia Power, a unit of Atlanta-based Southern Company.

The two claimed that cost increases related to the new nuclear units triggered clauses in a 2018 ownership agreement. Those clauses allegedly would shift construction cost responsibility above a certain level to Georgia Power. They also claim the right to give up some of their ownership stake in the Alvin W. Vogtle Units 3 and 4 project.

The lawsuit was filed June 18 in the Superior Court of Fulton County, Georgia. In an email sent in June to Power Engineering, a Georgia Power spokesperson said that the utility and Oglethorpe “have a difference of opinion over the dollar amount” at which the tender option is triggered. “We continue to have a difference of opinion and Georgia Power does not believe OPC’s tender notice is valid,” the spokesperson said.

Cost overruns and construction problems have delayed the project, the first nuclear units to come online in the United States since 2016. Vogtle Unit 3 is currently expected to come online by the end of the first quarter of 2023, and Unit 4 is expected at the end of 2023. 

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