Vogtle nuclear power plant

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Vogtle nuclear power plant
Vogtle nuclear power plant
Vogtle nuclear power plant
location
Vogtle nuclear power plant (Georgia)
Vogtle nuclear power plant
Coordinates 33 ° 8 '35 "  N , 81 ° 45' 57"  W Coordinates: 33 ° 8 '35 "  N , 81 ° 45' 57"  W.
Country: United States
Data
Owner: Georgia Power Co.
Operator: Southern Nuclear Operating Co.
Project start: 1971
Commercial operation: July 1, 1987

Active reactors (gross):

2 (2405 MW)

Reactors under construction (gross):

2 (2500 MW)
Energy fed in in 2015: 19,360 GWh
Energy fed in since commissioning: 496,470 GWh
Website: The nuclear power plant on the side of the operator (English)
Was standing: December 31, 2015
The data source of the respective entries can be found in the documentation .
f1

The nuclear power plant Vogtle is located near Waynesboro, Burke County in the east of the state of Georgia . The river forms the border with South Carolina in the east . The nuclear power plant is about 40 kilometers south of Augusta . On March 12, 2013, the construction of two further power plant blocks began. The last new building in the USA was approved in 1978.

The nuclear power plant (NPP) was named after Alvin W. Vogtle , a former CEO of Alabama Power and Southern Company . Among other things, Vogtle became known for his war experiences in Nazi Germany, which were filmed several times, and died of heart failure in 1994 at the age of 75.

A few kilometers to the northeast is the approximately 800 square kilometer Savannah River Site , a factory for the manufacture of nuclear weapons with around 10,000 employees.

Owner and operator

The NPP has the following shareholders:

  • Georgia Power, a subsidiary of the Southern Company (45.7%)
  • Oglethorpe Power Corporation (30%)
  • Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (22.7%)
  • the city of Dalton (1.6%)

The operator / licensee is the 'Southern Nuclear Operating Company', also a subsidiary of the Southern Company. The NPP is one of two Georgia Power nuclear power plants and one of three nuclear power plants in the Southern Company's system (the other two are Plant Hatch and Farley ).

Reactors

Aerial view of the power plant: on the right the cooling towers, in the middle the operating units 1 and 2, on the left the construction site for reactors 3 and 4

Both pressurized water reactors were manufactured by Westinghouse , the turbines and generators by General Electric . Unit 1 has a net output of 1109 MW (gross output 1203 MW). Unit 2 has a net output of 1127 MW (gross output 1202 MW). The containment , which encloses the reactor, the reactor cooling system and other components, is made of reinforced concrete and carbon steel.

construction

Construction of both blocks began on August 1, 1976. During construction, the cost increased from an estimated $ 660 million to $ 8.87 billion, 13.4 times the cost .

business

On March 27, 1987, the first block was synchronized with the power grid for the first time, and on June 1, 1987, commercial power operation began. Unit 2 was synchronized for the first time on April 10, 1989 and went into commercial operation on May 20, 1989.

In 1995, Vogtle-1 was the nuclear reactor with the eighth highest annual production worldwide, Unit 2 was the ninth highest in 1997 and 1998.

In 2000, Unit 2 set a new power generation record of 10,337,818 MWh.

On February 27, 2008, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the operator's request to increase the output of both units by 1.7% each. This increased the net electrical output of Vogtle-1 to 1174 MW and that of Vogtle-2 to 1173 MW.

Shutdown

On June 3, 2009, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) extended the operating license of the Vogtle nuclear power plant by 20 years; the operator applied for this on June 27, 2007. Block 1 may remain in operation until January 16, 2047, and Block 2 until February 9, 2049. With this permit, 54 of the 104 US nuclear reactors at that time already had an operating permit for 60 years.

New building

The operator 'Southern Nuclear Operating Company' filed March 31, 2008 an application for a combined construction and operating license ( Combined License A, COL) for two pressurized water reactors of the type AP1000 to be built next to the existing nuclear power plant. The two reactors are said to have a combined output of 2,234 MW. On April 8, 2009, The Shaw Group announced that the consortium of The Shaw Group and Westinghouse-Nuclear can begin preparations for the construction of the two new nuclear power plant units. The Georgia Public Service Commission approved Southern Nuclear's contract for the consortium on March 17, 2009, which was necessary for the company to reclaim construction and financing costs from end users.

On August 26, 2009, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved an application for an Early Site Permit (ESP) and also issued a Limited Work Authorization (LWA). The application for the ESP was made on August 15, 2006, the one for the LWA a year later. Through the LWA, the operator can carry out basic construction work such as the placement of retaining walls, leveling and preparing the foundation with lean concrete, the introduction of a blinding layer and the laying of waterproof sheeting. The application for a combined building and operating license (COL) from the operator, which must be issued before the start of construction, was approved by the NRC for the official test procedure on June 9, 2008. On February 9, 2012, it was announced that the NRC had given its approval. The construction costs were calculated at 14 billion dollars (then approx. 12.5 billion euros), according to the operator, up to 25,000 new jobs would be created temporarily.

Due to the difficulties with the new construction projects Vogtle and Virgil C. Summer , Toshiba filed for insolvency for its subsidiary Westinghouse Electric Company at the end of March 2017 . In June 2017 it was announced that Toshiba would pay Georgia Power $ 3.68 billion from 2017 to 2021 to secure the continued construction of the power plant. As of August 2017, the probable cost of the two reactors was given as $ 25 billion to over $ 27 billion. Shortly before, it had become known that the construction of the new Virgil C. Summer NPP , the only other nuclear power plant under construction in the USA, had been abandoned for cost reasons.

In February 2018, Georgia Power forecast November 2021 and November 2022 as the completion dates. In August 2018 it was announced that construction costs will increase. Southern Nuclear, which has been in charge of construction since 2017, expects its stake to increase by $ 1.1 billion. In the meantime, the completion of the two blocks was not considered certain due to the rising construction costs to USD 25 billion. In January 2019 the pressurizer for reactor 4 and in March 2019 the metallic reactor dome for reactor 3 were installed.

Data of the reactor blocks

The Vogtle nuclear power plant has two active blocks and two blocks under construction  :

Reactor block Reactor type net
power
gross
power
start of building Network
synchronization
Commercialization
of essential operation
switching off
processing
Vogtle-1 Pressurized water reactor 1109 MW 1203 MW August 1, 1976 March 27, 1987 June 1, 1987 (Planned for 2047)
Vogtle-2 Pressurized water reactor 1127 MW 1202 MW August 1, 1976 April 10, 1989 May 20, 1989 (Planned for 2049)
Vogtle-3 Pressurized water reactor 1117 MW 1250 MW 12th March 2013 planned for 2021
Vogtle-4 Pressurized water reactor 1117 MW 1250 MW 19th November 2013 planned for 2022

Web links

Commons : Vogtle nuclear power plant  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e Plant Vogtle - Southern Nuclear ( Memento of the original from September 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.southerncompany.com
  2. a b c US Nuclear Plants - Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant (English)
  3. ^ License For Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant Renewed | WJBF  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.wjbf.com  
  4. www.taxpayer.net
  5. ^ Matthew L. Wald: 2 New Reactors Approved in Georgia ( English ) New York Times. February 9, 2012. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
  6. US nuclear authorities approve first new nuclear power station since 1978. on: spiegel.de , February 9, 2012
  7. see also Nuclear Regulatory Commission Issuances: Opinions and Decisions Volume 8 (2nd half of 1978), p. 234 ff. ( Online ): Authorization for the Shearon Harris nuclear power plant .
  8. ^ Wolfgang Saxon: Alvin Ward Vogtle Jr., 75, Dies; Led Big Power Supplier in South , The New York Times April 13, 1994
  9. ^ Southerncompany.com: Video
  10. Information on globalsecurity.org , accessed on February 9, 2012
  11. a b c d Power Reactor Information System of the IAEA : "United States of America: Nuclear Power Reactors - Alphabetic" (English)
  12. Top Ten 1980–1999 | kernenergie.de  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.kernenergie.de  
  13. Nuclear Forum Switzerland - USA: Increase in performance for Vogtle  ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.schweizer-kernenergie.ch  
  14. a b Nuclear Forum Switzerland - USA: another 20 years of operation for Vogtle
  15. NRC: News Release - 2009-102 - NRC Renews Operating Licenses for Vogtle Nuclear Power Plants for an Additional 20 Years (English)
  16. Nuclear Forum Switzerland - Two more planning applications for AP1000 in the USA  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.nuklearforum.ch  
  17. Germany Trade and Invest - Nuclear Energy in the USA before the Renaissance  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.gtai.de  
  18. Nuclear Forum Switzerland - start of preparatory work for the first new building project in the USA  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.nuklearforum.ch  
  19. Nuclear Forum Switzerland - USA: fourth early location permit for nuclear power plant  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.nuklearforum.ch  
  20. WNN - US new nuclear build before 2012 ( memento of the original from August 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.world-nuclear-news.org
  21. Nuclear Forum Switzerland - USA: Construction progress for Vogtle-3 and -4
  22. focus.de: USA approve new nuclear reactors for the first time
  23. ^ Westinghouse Files for Bankruptcy, in Blow to Nuclear Power , March 29, 2017
  24. Darrell Proctor: Toshiba Agrees to $ 3.68 Billion Deal to Aid Vogtle Nuclear Construction , June 12, 2017
  25. a b c Vogtle nuke cost could top $ 25B as decision time looms . In: UtilityDIve , August 3, 2017. Retrieved August 4, 2017.
  26. Eighteenth Semi-annual Vogtle Construction Monitoring Report (pdf, 6 MB)
  27. Nuklerarforum.ch: USA: Southern Nuclear expects higher costs for the Vogtle new building project , August 16, 2018
  28. Holger Dambeck: The nuclear phase-out will probably also come in the USA. In: spiegel.de. July 4, 2018, accessed August 31, 2020 . spiegel.de July 7, 2018: The nuclear phase-out will probably also come in the USA
  29. PSC experts recommend the Vogtle project. Nuclear Forum Switzerland, December 12, 2017, accessed on August 31, 2020 .
  30. Nuklerarforum.ch: Vogtle-3: Reactor dome set , March 22, 2019