The monumental, albeit tumultuous, expansion of the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant is one of the few projects to receive bipartisan praise, but even the completion of the first two nuclear reactors built in the United States in a generation has not brought some top political leaders into the same arena.
Gov. Brian Kemp was the first to make the rounds in front of Vogle’s cooling towers near Augusta on Wednesday, praising the state’s workforce and Republican leadership for the success of the expansion. U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm took to the same stage on Friday to repeat similar praise for nuclear power, but also to highlight the federal effort backed by President Joe Biden, labor unions and Democrats.
While the two celebrations focused on different benefits of expanding nuclear power, there was an underlying thread: America needs more nuclear power, and Bogle is now the blueprint on which to get it.
“I am committed to building a world-class nuclear industry in the United States, and I will demonstrate this with my actions and not just my words,” Granholm said, highlighting the Biden administration’s commitment to tripling the world’s nuclear energy by 2050.
Kemp echoed that sentiment: “An intergenerational project like this takes great vision and dedication. Not everyone can see the big picture, but the men and women here today do.”
Credit: Irvin Temker/AJC
Credit: Irvin Temker/AJC
The plant’s second new reactor, Reactor 4, was completed in late April, joining Reactor 3, which has been operational since July last year. Combined, the two reactors can produce enough electricity to power one million homes without releasing any greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Vogtle also has two older reactors that have been generating electricity since the late 1980s.
With the two new units operational, Vogtle has become the largest carbon-free electricity generator in the nation, according to Georgia Power.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Company executives and politicians say Vogtle’s expansion could spark a new nuclear renaissance, especially as government-backed nuclear programs in China and Russia gather momentum. But Vogtle’s many setbacks, including years of delays and cost overruns, threaten to deter other private companies from trying again.
Southern Company, owner of Georgia Power, is prepared to pass on lessons learned in bringing the new reactors to fruition, said Chris Womack, the company’s president and CEO.
Kemp has supported further expansion of the Peach State nuclear plant, concluding his speech by saying, “Let’s start planning for Vogle 5,” but this expansion is unlikely to happen in the near future.
“(Nuclear expansion) is something the country needs to do in the near future,” Womack said. “We’re going to do everything in our power to support it, but there won’t be any new investment by Southern for the time being.”
Cutting-edge costs
Both Vogtle units were plagued by construction quality issues and other problems.
The Burke County Nuclear Power Plant expansion was completed about seven years later than originally scheduled. The total cost of the project has also risen to about $35 billion, far more than the original estimate of $14 billion. Most of Georgia Power’s share has come, and will continue to come, out of the pockets of Georgia Power customers.
Georgia Power owns the largest share of the Vogtle Extension at 45.7%, followed by Oglethorpe Power (30%), Georgia Power Authority (22.7%) and Dalton Utilities (1.6%).
Vogtle’s new units will provide clean energy 24 hours a day, but critics say the project’s prohibitive costs to Georgia Power ratepayers outweigh the environmental benefits. Some argue that Vogtle’s carbon-free electricity could be delivered faster and at a lower cost with a combination of solar power and battery storage systems.
Others, including Public Utilities Commission officials, have testified at hearings over the years arguing that the plants provide no economic benefit to ratepayers and that customers would be better off building natural gas plants instead.
Credit: Irvin Temker/AJC
Credit: Irvin Temker/AJC
Patty Durand, a clean energy advocate and former PSC candidate who opposes more nuclear power plants, said she was disappointed that Kemp and Granholm received bipartisan support, even though they couldn’t share the same stage.
“Neither the federal government nor the state government is acknowledging the pain that ratepayers are feeling,” Durand said. “We’re in a time in our country where Republicans and Democrats can agree on something and they’re not going to acknowledge it.”
Durand said Vogtle would not have been built without the $12 billion loan from the Department of Energy because the private sector would never take on risky loans that would have to be repaid by ratepayers.
Womack acknowledged that in hindsight there were many things his company would have done differently, but some challenges were inevitable: A new supply chain had to be built from scratch, and the project’s original developer, Westinghouse, went bankrupt in 2017. Womack said the benefits of nuclear power are hard to ignore, especially as new industries seek carbon-free power.
“When you look at other renewables that we support, they’re very intermittent and have constraints and issues that nuclear doesn’t have,” he said. “Once a nuclear plant comes online, it runs and provides significant value to the grid and to customers.”
“Follow their lead”
Georgia Power, the federal government, and the nuclear industry hoped that the completion of the Vogtle reactor and its newly trained workforce would jump-start nuclear power in the United States.
So far, no nuclear revival has materialized.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
There are no other commercial nuclear power plants under construction in the United States, and no new builds have been ordered. New designs for next-generation reactors are under development, although a highly publicized plan to build a small modular reactor (SMR), a scaled-down version of the Vogtle reactor, was recently canceled in Idaho.
These concerns prompted Granholm to highlight the billions of dollars in subsidies and incentives the federal government is dangling for new nuclear projects.
“It takes courage to bet on new designs, new industries and new technologies, but it pays off,” she said. “Now it’s time for others to follow their lead.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
At the height of reactor construction, 9,000 workers flooded into Waynesboro, a rural town 30 miles south of Augusta. The expanded Vogtle plant and its two new units will support 800 full-time jobs.
Brent Booker, president of the Laborers International Union of North America, said many of those workplaces are unionized and that the Vogtle plant “should serve as a model for achieving high safety and operational standards going forward.”
With a growing number of energy-hungry data centers driving up electricity demand, many experts see expanding nuclear power as a key tool to fight climate change and build energy independence for the U.S. Granholm said the U.S. needs an additional 200 gigawatts of nuclear power by 2050 to meet its commitments.
“Two done. 198 left,” she said.
