POWER November 2013 - 44

Nuclear
Table 1. Companies supporting construction and future operation of VCSNS Units 2 and 3. Source: SCE&G
Company
Contribution
Westinghouse Electric Co., LLC and CB&I
Westinghouse Electric Co., LLC
CB&I
Pegasus Steel
Newport News Industries
Bechtel Power Corp.
MACTEC Engineering and Consulting Inc.
Risk Engineering Inc.
Tetra Tech NUS Inc.
William A. Lettis and Associates Inc.
Pike Electric Corp.
Doosan Manufacturing Facility, South Korea
Tioga Pipe Supply Co., Inc.
WEC Carolina Energy Solutions
Mangiarotti Nuclear, SpA, Italy
Sungjin Geotec Co., Ltd., South Korea
Thermal Engineering International
Curtiss-Wright EMD's facility
Toshiba
Evaptech
sparsely populated, largely rural area, with
forests and small farms.
The site is not vulnerable to the natural
threats that destroyed the Fukushima nuclear
plant. Based on previous and existing environmental
assessments, the site-primarily
featuring low rolling hills-has no active or
capable fault lines in the vicinity of the plant.
This was demonstrated during Unit 1 construction
and licensing the two new reactors.
A tsunami is not going to be a factor because
the site is 435 feet above sea level and located
more than 100 miles from the ocean.
Local Staffing
With the nuclear revival in the Southeast, the
region already has a strong technical college
system, and two state universities have started
nuclear engineering programs. South Carolina
State University has an undergraduate nuclear
program, while the University of South Carolina
has a graduate program. SCE&G and parent
company SCANA Corp. are working with
Midlands Technical College on a program to
train nuclear plant operators.
The construction project continues to
recruit and utilize the majority of employees
from a skilled craft workforce in South
Carolina. More than half of these local work44
Engineering,
procurement, and construction contract; AP1000 provider; architect-engineer, constructor,
testing, and startup
Overall plant design, AP1000 design certification revisions, procurement of primary NSSS equipment
and power block major components, including the turbine generator and plant training simulator
Site development, construction, secondary equipment procurement, module fabrication, and supply of
bulk materials and commodities
Module fabrication
Fabrication of shield building structural modules
Program manager; prepared and published the combined construction and operating licenses
Geotechnical field investigations and laboratory testing
Probabilistic seismic hazard analyses
Site investigations and preparation of the Environmental Report and portions of the Final Safety Analysis
Report
Geological, seismological, and geotechnical engineering
Engineering, procurement, and construction contract for approximately 250 miles of new 230-kV transmission
lines for Units 2 and 3
Reactor vessels, closure heads, and steam generators
RCL cold and hot legs
Welding activities, installation of fittings and instrumentation access points
Core make-up tanks and accumulator tanks
Deaerators
Moisture separator reheaters
Reactor coolant pumps
Turbine generators
Cooling towers
ers are from Fairfield, Lexington, Richland,
and Newberry counties. Approximately
1,600 Westinghouse/CB&I personnel and
contractor and subcontractor personnel are
employed on site. As of June 2013, SCE&G
had completed hiring slightly over one-half
of the operational staffing positions identified
as mission critical. The hiring goal for
2013 is to fill approximately 100 such positions.
CB&I plans to employ approximately
3,000 to 3,500 employees during the project,
a number that is expected to fluctuate during
different phases of construction activity.
When they are connected to the grid, the
two new units will create about 800 permanent
jobs for Fairfield County.
Site Preparation and Recent
Progress
Many of the initial activities required to construct
a nuclear power plant are not within
the NRC's regulatory authority and are
grouped under the term " preconstruction. "
These activities started in 2009 and consisted
of clearing and grading, excavating, erecting
support buildings and transmission lines, and
other non-nuclear safety-related activities.
These preconstruction activities can occur
before, during, and after the COL application
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is submitted or, in some cases, concurrently
with NRC-regulated construction. Although
certain preconstruction activities may be outside
the NRC's regulatory authority, many of
them can be within the regulatory authority
of local, state, or other federal agencies, including
certain activities requiring permits.
By 2010, for example, the 13-story module
assembly building where structural
modules will be assembled prior to actual
installation-including administrative and
office buildings, training facilities, testing
labs, tool shops, and warehouses-had been
completed. In addition, more than 6.5 million
cubic yards of earth has been excavated
in early site preparation for the power block
area, the circulating water system, and the
switchyard area for Unit 2. Work was also
under way on fabricating the reactor pressure
vessel and the steam generators, the largest
and heaviest components of the AP1000.
Many suppliers are involved in this massive
project (Table 1) and the activities outlined
below. These status notes are based on
the June 2013 quarterly report.
Plant Design Packages. As of June 30,
2013, the Units 2 and 3 plant design packages
issued for construction are 82.4% complete.
SCE&G is focusing on nuclear island
POWER | November 2013

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POWER November 2013

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