POWER May 2012 - 36

NUCLEAR
Vogtle Gets Green Light
In February 2012, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved two combined
construction and operating licenses for Southern Nuclear's Plant Vogtle Units 3
and 4 in Georgia. They were the first licenses ever approved for a U.S. nuclear
plant using the one-step licensing process and the first allowing construction in
more than three decades. Now the real work begins.
By James M. Hylko
Courtesy: Southern Company Inc.
T
he Nuclear Regulatory Commission
(NRC) voted 4-1 to approve two combined
construction and operating licenses
(COLs) for Southern Nuclear's Alvin
W. Vogtle Electric Generation Plant (Plant
Vogtle) Units 3 and 4 on February 9. Receipt
of the COLs concluded a regulatory process
lasting almost four years and officially authorizes
Southern Nuclear to build and operate
two 1,100-MW Westinghouse AP1000 pressurized
water reactors (PWRs) at the Georgia
plant. Unit 3 is expected to begin operating in
2016 and Unit 4 in 2017. (See sidebar " What
Is NuStart? " )
Plant Vogtle is one of Georgia Power's two
nuclear facilities and one of three nuclear facilities
in the Southern Co. system. Southern
Nuclear, a subsidiary of Southern Co. since
1990, is the licensed operator of Plant Vogtle,
which is located about 25 miles south of Augusta,
Ga. The plant is jointly owned by Georgia
Power (45.7%), Oglethorpe Power Corp.
36
(30%), Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia
(22.7%), and the Dalton Utilities (1.6%).
Units 1 and 2 consist of Westinghouse fourloop
PWRs rated at 1,109 and 1,127 MW respectively,
and are shown at the top of the artist
rendering above. Unit 1 began commercial operation
in 1987; Unit 2 followed in 1989. The
two new Generation III+ nuclear reactors that
are expected to enter commercial service in
2016 and 2017 are shown in the foreground.
POWER first visited Southern Nuclear's
Vogtle Units 3 and 4 site in Waynesboro, Ga.,
to report on construction progress of the two
nuclear plants in late 2009 (see " Plant Vogtle
Leads the Next Nuclear Generation " in the
November 2009 issue or in the archives at
www.powermag.com). At the close of that
article, we said, " We expect Plant Vogtle to
be the first of the next generation of nuclear
plants to enter commercial service during
2016. " Southern Nuclear is on track to prove
our prediction correct.
www.powermag.com
Just prior to that 2009 visit, the NRC had
issued an early site permit (ESP) and limited
work authorization (LWA) approvals to begin
site clearing and safety-related excavation
activities in anticipation of the NRC issuing a
COL for each of the two new reactors.
The COL is a one-step licensing process
that was designed to reduce NRC regulatory
red tape by simultaneously issuing a license to
construct and to operate a new nuclear plant;
it replaced the delay-prone two-step process
used in the 1970s and 80s (see " Second Set of
COLs Approved " sidebar, p. 40). In the past,
it was common for licensing requirements to
change in the middle of construction, resulting
in costly redesigns and delays, thus dramatically
escalating construction costs. NRC records
indicate that the last construction permit
issued using the old two-step process was in
1978 for the Shearon Harris 1 nuclear plant in
North Carolina.
In addition to the one-step COL proPOWER
| May 2012
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POWER May 2012

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