ATLANTA — A new reactor at a nuclear electric power plant in Georgia has entered commercial operation, getting to be the initially new American reactor developed from scratch in decades.
Ga Energy Co. introduced Monday that Unit 3 at Plant Vogtle, southeast of Augusta, has done tests and is now sending energy to the grid reliably.
At its whole output of 1,100 megawatts of electric power, Unit 3 can ability 500,000 properties and organizations. Utilities in Georgia, Florida and Alabama are receiving the energy.
Nuclear electric power now helps make up about 25% of the era of Ga Ability, the major device of Atlanta-dependent Southern Co.
A fourth reactor is also nearing completion at the site, exactly where two earlier reactors have been generating electric power for many years. The Nuclear Regulatory Fee on Friday said radioactive gasoline could be loaded into Device 4, a action predicted to choose put in advance of the finish of September. Unit 4 is scheduled to enter industrial operation by March.
The 3rd and fourth reactors had been at first supposed to cost $14 billion, but are now on observe to cost their proprietors $31 billion. That does not consist of $3.7 billion that initial contractor Westinghouse compensated to the proprietors to wander absent from the venture. That delivers overall expending to pretty much $35 billion.
The third reactor was intended to start off producing power in 2016 when construction commenced in 2009.
Vogtle is critical due to the fact government officers and some utilities are yet again searching to nuclear energy to alleviate climate improve by generating electricity without having burning organic fuel, coal and oil.
“This task shows just how new nuclear can and will participate in a significant function in attaining a cleanse energy future for the United States,” Southern Co. CEO Chris Womack explained in a statement. “Bringing this device securely into company is a credit rating to the really hard perform and devotion of our teams at Southern Corporation and the countless numbers of further personnel who have aided develop that foreseeable future at this web page.”
In Ga, nearly every single electric powered customer will spend for Vogtle. Georgia Electric power at present owns 45.7% of the reactors. Lesser shares are owned by Oglethorpe Power Corp., which provides electric power to member-owned cooperatives, the Municipal Electrical Authority of Ga and the town of Dalton. Oglethorpe and MEAG plan to promote electric power to cooperatives and municipal utilities across Georgia, as effectively in Jacksonville, Florida, and elements of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.
Ga Power’s 2.7 million consumers are currently shelling out section of the financing value and elected general public services commissioners have approved a every month fee maximize of $3.78 a month for residential customers as soon as the third device starts producing power. That could strike payments in August, two months after residential shoppers noticed a $16-a-month increase to pay for greater gas costs.
Commissioners will make your mind up later who pays for the remainder of the expenditures of Vogtle, like the fourth reactor.