State’s Largest Project Reaches Critical Milestone

Georgia Power has announced that Vogtle Unit 3, which crews from Bechtel have been diligently working to complete, has safely reached initial criticality. Initial criticality is a key step during the startup testing sequence and demonstrates that — for the first time —operators have safely started the nuclear reaction inside the reactor. Achieving initial criticality is necessary to continue the startup of the unit in order to generate sufficient heat for the production of electricity.

These new reactors are the first to be constructed in the United States in the past 32 years.

A third and a fourth reactor were approved for construction at Vogtle by the Georgia Public Service Commission in 2009. The company now said Unit 3 could begin commercial operation in May or June. Unit 4 is projected to begin commercial operation sometime between this November and March 2024. Southern Nuclear will operate the new units on behalf of the co-owners Georgia Power, Oglethorpe Power, MEAG Power and Dalton Utilities.

The cost of the third and fourth reactors was originally supposed to be $14 billion. The reactors are now supposed to cost more than $30 billion.

“We knew building the first new nuclear units in the U.S. in more than 30 years would be challenging, but the project has endured extraordinary circumstances during construction, including the pandemic as the most recent,” said Jeff Wilson, Georgia Power spokesman. “Through it all, the project has endured and overcome multiple challenges. Vogtle 3 and 4 remains a critical investment for this state and, once the