Georgia Power on Friday touted continued progress continues at the Vogtle nuclear expansion site near Waynesboro, Georgia with recent latest milestones achieved over the past week including a 71-hour continues concrete pour the company deemed a “super placement.”
Workers on site also managed the latest heavy lift at the site involving the placement of a 237-ton CA03 module for Unit 4.
The 71-hour continuous concrete placement for Unit 3 included 1,844 cubic yards of concrete – enough to create a sidewalk more than six miles long. New concrete was poured in four key areas of the Unit 3 containment vessel – the refueling cavity, the bottom of the in-containment refueling water storage tank, the west steam generator cubicle walls and the pressurizer cubicle walls.
The CA03 module for Unit 4 is part of the In-Containment Refueling Water Storage Tank (IRWST). The IRWST is a 75,300 cubic foot tank that, once the units are operational, is filled with borated water and provides passive heat-sink within containment and backup cooling for the reactor vessel.
Other significant milestones achieved at the Vogtle construction site over the past 30 days include the placement of the CA33 floor module for Unit 3. The module, weighing 35 tons, was delivered to the site from Greenberry Industrial in three sub-modules that were then welded together on site in the Vogtle Module Assembly Building.
Additionally, workers placed the Vogtle Unit 4 deaerator inside the turbine building. The 148-foot, 300-ton deaerator functions like a water purifier, eliminating dissolved gasses such as carbon dioxide and oxygen from feedwater. Deaeration prevents corrosion, helping to reduce plant maintenance and operating costs.
More than 6,000 workers from across the country are on-site at Plant Vogtle today working to complete the nation’s first new nuclear units in 30 years.
Georgia Power, which owns 45.7 percent of the new units, along with other Georgia-based minority co-owners including Oglethorpe Power, MEAG Power and Dalton Utilities, filed a recommendation on August 31 with the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) to continue construction of the Vogtle nuclear expansion. The filing was done on behalf of all of the project’s other co-owners. The recommendation was based on the results of a comprehensive schedule, cost-to-complete and cancellation assessment launched following the bankruptcy of Westinghouse in March.
The Georgia PSC is expected to review the recommendation and make a decision regarding the future of the Vogtle 3 and 4 project as part of the 17th Vogtle Construction Monitoring (VCM) proceeding.
Georgia Power recently announced a conditional commitment of approximately $1.67 billion in additional loan guarantees for the project from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), as well as receipt of the first of multiple scheduled parent guarantee payments from Westinghouse parent Toshiba. The funding initiatives are part of a continued effort to reduce the impact on ratepayers, the company said, noting that the total expected rate impact of the project remains less than the original estimate, after including anticipated customer benefits from federal production tax credits, interest savings from loan guarantees from the DOE and the fuel savings of nuclear energy.
Final approval and issuance of these additional loan guarantees by the DOE cannot be assured and are subject to the negotiation of definitive agreements, completion of due diligence by the DOE, receipt of any necessary regulatory approvals, and satisfaction of other conditions.
Source: Nuclear Power News
