A new reactor at a nuclear power plant in Waynesboro, Georgia, has entered commercial operation, becoming the first nuclear reactor in the United States to come online in more than 30 years.
Georgia Power Co. announced Monday that its Plant Volte Unit 3 has completed testing and is reliably supplying power to the grid.
The utility company said it expects the facility to be in service for at least another 60 years, helping to power an estimated 500,000 homes and businesses. Utilities in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama are receiving the electricity.
Nuclear energy currently makes up about 25 percent of the generation of Georgia Power, the largest unit of Atlanta-based Southern Co.
A fourth reactor is also nearing completion at the site, where two earlier reactors have been generating electricity for decades. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday said radioactive fuel could be loaded into Unit 4, a step expected to take place before the end of September. Unit 4 is scheduled to enter commercial operation by March.
“The Plant Vogtle 3 and 4 nuclear expansion is another incredible example of how Georgia Power is building a reliable and resilient energy future for our state,” Kim Greene, chairman, president, and CEO of Georgia Power, said in a statement. “It is important that we make these kinds of long-term investments and see them through so we can continue providing clean, safe, reliable, and affordable energy to our 2.7 million customers.”
The Plant Vogtle nuclear project follows years of construction delays and spiraling costs. The third reactor was scheduled to come online in 2016 when construction began in 2009; it’s hitting that milestone seven years later.
The third and fourth reactors were originally supposed to cost $14 billion, but are now on track to cost their owners almost $35 billion.
The new units at Plant Vogtle were the first nuclear construction approved in decades and are the country’s only new reactors in progress.
In Georgia, almost every electric customer will pay for Vogtle. Georgia Power currently owns 45.7 percent of the reactors. Smaller shares are owned by Oglethorpe Power Corp., which provides electricity to member-owned cooperatives, the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia, and the city of Dalton.
Georgia Power’s 2.7 million customers are already paying part of the financing cost and elected public service commissioners have approved a monthly rate increase of $3.78 a month for residential customers as soon as the third unit begins generating power. That could hit bills in August, two months after residential customers saw a $16-a-month increase to pay for higher fuel costs.
Commissioners will decide later who pays for the remainder of the costs of Vogtle, including the fourth reactor.
Since renewable energy sources like wind and solar energy aren’t constantly available and predictable, which vary depending on the weather, many see nuclear plants as an important complementary source of power.
The Biden administration has identified nuclear energy as a key climate solution to achieve grid stability in a net-zero future, since nuclear power doesn’t produce carbon emission and it’s more reliable than wind and solar energy. The administration is pushing for the deployment of a new generation of reactors called “advanced nuclear,” a catchall term for new nuclear reactor models that improve on the safety and efficiency of traditional reactor designs.
