Nuclear powerGeorgia’s Plant Vogtle reviving hopes for nuclear power in U.S.

Published 26 September 2012

Plant Vogtle, located in Burke County, Georgia, is one of the most watched construction projects in the world; it is currently going through a $14 billion dollar expansion, which includes the first new commercial reactors built in the United States in decades

Plant Vogtle, located in Burke County, Georgia, is one of the most watched construction projects in the world. It is currently going through a $14 billion dollar expansion, which includes the first new commercial reactors built in the United States in decades. The Augusta Chronicle reports that since the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved the final permits in February, the project has taken off like a rocket.

“There is a certain simplicity in the way it’s being done that sets the standard for nuclear construction,” Buzz Miller, an Auburn University-educated engineer and Southern Nuclear executive vice president for nuclear development, told the Augusta Chronicle. “The concept, modular construction, is much like a prefabricated house. We’re building big chunks, and then we pick them up and set them in place.”

The expansion is the result of a simple need to diversify energy production. When the studies were completed, the choice was obvious. “The company decided, let’s build a nuclear plant,” Miller, told the Chronicle.

The Vogtle site is a rat race with 2,200 men and women working daily. The two emerging “nuclear islands” which will house the new reactors are currently surrounded by offices, equipment, concrete plates, and security gates.

The modular assembly building, or MAB, as the workers call it, will house piping, maintenance corridors, and other functions of the Unit 3 reactor. The interior of the MAB is being designed to lock in place like a puzzle.

“When it’s done, they take the end off this building, pick it up and roll it out – just like they do with the space shuttle.” Miller told the Chronicle

The next step in the project is perhaps the most important. Later this fall the first “nuclear concrete” will be poured into the steel-ribbed foundation of Unit 3. Miller knows that this is one of the most important steps in the project.

“In a project like this, even the concrete isn’t just concrete,” Miller told the Chronicle “It’s nuclear concrete. The size of the aggregate, even the temperature controls, are all part of it.”

The pour will be one continuous forty hour stream of specialized liquefied concrete which will be made by an onsite plant.

The concrete will be brought to the site in trucks and carefully emptied into a 90-foot hole which has taken years of work and billions of dollars to prepare. Miller knows there is no margin for error.

“Whatever you are putting together, there are standards and codes that cover it, and you follow them,” Miller told the Chronicle. “There is a lot of practice involved.”

A miniature copy of the Unit 3 reactor is on the location as a practice site for the concrete pour. “It will let us check the concrete, making sure it’s right, and we can see how it pours and dries,” Miller said.

The Vogtle project is moving along smoothly now, but in the beginning the project was hard to get off the ground. The nuclear crisis in Fukushima focused more attention on safety issues in the nuclear industry, with calls in the United States and other countries for more safety regulations. The lack of a national plan for dealing with nuclear waste concerned politicians and led the NCR to freeze the project temporarily.  

At the Vogtle site, Miller has had to deal with noncompliant rebar and stalled negotiations for a federal loan guarantee of $8.3 billion.

For Miller these issues come with the territory. “We’re first, and obviously a lot of learning is taking place as we go along,” Miller told the Chronicle. “There has been a lot of focus on the negative, but there is also a lot of positive.”

The Vogtle project is expected to be completed by 2017, according to Miller, who is excited about the opportunities that this project will present in the future. “We’ve done this eyes wide open, every step of the way,” Miller told the Chronicle. “But if you look around, we’ve done it. It’s all starting to come together.”