pwr_july-2024 - 15

PLANT OF THE YEAR
Company. Discussions with co-owners
of the existing units, which are split between
Georgia Power (45.7%), Oglethorpe
Power (30%), the Municipal Electric
Authority of Georgia (MEAG Power,
22.7%), and Dalton Utilities (1.6%), began
almost immediately.
A Long and Winding Road
The co-owners entered into an agreement
to explore development of two
new nuclear units on the Vogtle site in
2005. Southern Nuclear, the Southern
Company subsidiary that operates the
company's nuclear units, quickly began
work on an application for an Early Site
Permit for Vogtle Units 3 and 4. The application
was submitted to the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC) in 2006.
Meanwhile, the co-owners entered
into a Participation Agreement to pursue
construction of the units and determine
each party's ownership interest, which
was ultimately distributed similarly to
Units 1 and 2. Negotiations also started
with a consortium comprised of Westinghouse
Electric Co. and Shaw-Stone
& Webster on an engineering, procurement,
and construction (EPC) contract to
deliver two AP1000 units. Southern Nuclear
applied for a Limited Work Authorization
with the NRC the following year.
The need for new nuclear generation
was confirmed in 2007 through Georgia
Power's Integrated Resource Plan
(IRP) process with the Georgia Public
Service Commission (PSC), Abramovitz
explained. " This regular process brings
many stakeholders together to evaluate
and discuss Georgia's future energy
needs and how to best meet new demand, "
he said.
The co-owners, Westinghouse, and
Shaw-Stone & Webster executed an EPC
agreement in 2008 to deliver the additional
Vogtle units based on the Westinghouse
AP1000 design. Southern Nuclear
applied to the NRC for a Combined License,
referencing the still-pending Early
Site Permit and the AP1000 certified
design, which was undergoing amendments
requested by Westinghouse at
the time of filing.
In 2009, the NRC issued the Early Site
Permit and Limited Work Authorization,
which permitted limited safety-related site
work to begin in advance of the issuance
of the Combined Licenses for Vogtle Units
3 and 4. The Georgia PSC also approved
construction of the new units that year
and excavation commenced at the site.
The NRC finally issued the Combined
License for the Vogtle 3 and 4 reactors in
July 2024 | POWER
2012, which cleared the way for safetyrelated
civil construction to begin. 2012
was also the year in which the first of
what would be a few contractor shakeups
took place. In this case, CB&I (originally
known as Chicago Bridge & Iron
Co.) acquired Stone & Webster and replaced
The Shaw Group as the constructor
under the EPC agreement. A few
years later, Westinghouse, which was a
group company of Toshiba Corp., signed
a definitive agreement to acquire CB&I
Stone & Webster Inc., the nuclear construction
and integrated services businesses
of CB&I. Westinghouse then
entered into an agreement with Fluor
Corp. to manage a significant portion of
the construction for the Vogtle project.
Fluor's involvement would last less
than two years, however. Westinghouse
ended up filing for bankruptcy protection
in 2017, which led to Georgia Power assuming
direct control over the project
as agent for the co-owners. Southern
Nuclear managed the project for Georgia
Power and contracted with Bechtel to
complete construction of the units and
with Westinghouse to continue to provide
engineering and design services.
Trials and Tribulations
The challenges in licensing and constructing
the first new nuclear plants in
the U.S. in more than three decades,
based on a first-of-a-kind design (Figure
2), were many and varied. Perhaps the
biggest challenge was that the nuclear
construction infrastructure in the U.S.
(and to some extent around the world)
had been allowed to deteriorate during
the 1980s and 1990s to the point where
it had to be rebuilt. Supply chains had to
be re-established and workers had to be
trained to do nuclear-quality work that is
far more precise and exacting than typical
industrial work.
" When we look back over the entire
project, there are certainly many challenges
to reference, " John Williams, senior
vice president for Vogtle 3 and 4, told
POWER. " We are proud that we faced
each of these challenges head on-in
partnership with our co-owners, the Georgia
PSC, and labor partners. This continued
alignment and clear communication
between all parties was essential to our
ability to complete the project. "
The initial contractual arrangement
with Westinghouse and Shaw-Stone &
Webster was essentially a firm price/
guaranteed schedule EPC agreement.
Under this arrangement Southern Nuclear,
as the licensed constructor, prowww.powermag.com
2.
Vogtle Unit 4's main control room is
shown here. The technology incorporated into
Units 3 and 4 is vastly different from what was
installed in Vogtle Units 1 and 2 in the 1980s.
Courtesy: Georgia Power Company
vided management oversight to the EPC
contractor, which directed day-to-day
construction activities. After Westinghouse
rejected the EPC agreement in its
bankruptcy proceeding, Southern Nuclear
took a more direct role in managing
Bechtel's construction activities. Bechtel
directly managed craft labor, and means
and methods of construction, with oversight
by Southern Nuclear.
Fairly early in the project, in 2011, a
tsunami struck the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
plant in Japan, further complicating
things. After a several-month delay, during
which the NRC assessed the safety
of the AP1000 design under Fukushimalike
event conditions, Revision 19 to the
AP1000 Design Control Document was
certified by the NRC.
Finally, the COVID-19 pandemic delivered
unprecedented challenges. " We
worked hard to ensure that the people
coming on-site were informed and knew
that their safety was the most important
element of construction, " Williams said.
A Safe and Productive Workforce
Prior to the pandemic, the workforce
peaked at approximately 9,000 workers.
" However, if you consider additional support
personnel and project managers,
that number reaches 10,000, " said Williams.
" In all, we estimate approximately
35,000 different individuals were badged
for the site in various roles throughout
the project. In addition to the construction
jobs, the new units are providing
800 full-time jobs across all functions. "
Notably, the Vogtle expansion project
had a continuous run of more than 71
million man-hours without a lost time
incident (Figure 3), which set a record
for Bechtel for a U.S. construction project.
Furthermore, hundreds of millions
of man-hours were worked throughout
the project with very respectable safety
metrics overall.
" Safety is the top value for our company, "
Williams said. " The project's safety
15
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