Land being excavated for new Vogtle reactors
Sep 30 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Rob Pavey The Augusta Chronicle, Ga.
> Workers at Plant Vogtle are toiling 20 hours a day to accelerate
> progress on what is likely to become the nation's first new commercial
> reactor project in decades.
>
> "Everyone anticipates, and recognizes, that according to our
> industry peers, Vogtle will be the first," said David Jones, Southern
> Nuclear's site vice president for Units 3 and 4. "It is part of our
> job to make that happen."
>
> The company received an early site permit from the Nuclear
> Regulatory Commission in August and has moved more than 320 workers
> and a fleet of heavy equipment to the Burke County site, where 4
> million cubic yards of dirt are being excavated to prepare for the $14
> billion construction project.
>
> If all goes well with permitting and construction, the new units
> -- producing 1,170 megawatts apiece -- will go online in 2016 and
> 2017, Mr.
> Jones said. "I don't know of any other utility that has published a
> schedule that advanced."
>
> Across the nation, the NRC is evaluating 16 similar applications
> for
> 24 new reactors, but many of those projects remain on the drawing
> board and most are not as advanced as Vogtle's, which expects to
> receive its major final hurdle -- a combined operating license -- in
> 2011.
>
> Vogtle is among only four new nuclear projects that have received
> an early site permit, said NRC spokesman Roger Hannah. The other three
> are the Clinton site in Illinois, which has not yet filed a combined
> operating license request; the Grand Gulf project in Mississippi; and
> the North Anna project in Virginia, which remains in the
> environmental-impact- statement phase, he said.
>
> The existing units at Vogtle were among the last in the nation's
> current fleet of nuclear-generating plants to go online in the late
> 1980s, Mr. Jones said. Now the site is poised to lead the nation in
> what some have dubbed a "Nuclear Renaissance" that will bring jobs and
> electricity to growing areas, especially in the South.
>
> "There are a lot of reasons for added confidence today in meeting
> that schedule that we didn't have in the 1970s," he said.
>
> Decades ago, nuclear projects faced costly delays because of
> changes in rules and specifications that occurred as reactors were
> being planned and built. The combined operating license program,
> devised by the NRC to streamline the permitting process,
> simultaneously authorizes reactor construction and operation.
>
> "It's a big change," he said. "In the '70s and '80s, you got a
> construction license to build it over five years, and then you had to
> apply for a license to operate it," he said. "There was a lot of risk
> of changing expectations and changing technology that we don't have
> this time around."
>
> Much of the current work is focused on excavating the site to a
> depth of 95 feet, after which much of the dirt will be repacked to
> create a firm foundation.
>
> "We've recently gone to two 10-hour shifts, six days a week,"
> said
> Mark Tanner, the site's engineering construction liaison. "Right now
> they are moving about 20,000 cubic yards per shift."
>
> The 42-acre site, surrounded by more than seven miles of silt
> fence and erosion barriers, includes 79 wells that capture and remove
> water that seeps into the area during construction.
>
> Once online, the new reactors will roughly double the site's
> 850-person work force to 1,700. During the peak of construction,
> expected to occur in 2013-14, about 3,000 to 3,500 workers will be
> employed.
>
> In addition to the contractors at work on the new site, almost
> 800 temporary workers were at Vogtle's Unit 1 this week to refuel the
> reactor during one of its rare -- and costly -- scheduled outages.
>
> Ellie Daniel, a corporate communications specialist at the site,
> said the 25-day shutdown began Sept. 20 to allow scheduled maintenance
> and major refueling operations that are performed every 18 months.
> Unit 2 will undergo a similar refueling shutdown next spring. Such
> shutdowns cost the owners about $1 million a day in lost revenue.
>
> Reach Rob Pavey at 868-1222, ext. 119, or
> [email protected].
> Workers at Plant Vogtle are toiling 20 hours a day to accelerate
> progress on what is likely to become the nation's first new commercial
> reactor project in decades.
>
> "Everyone anticipates, and recognizes, that according to our
> industry peers, Vogtle will be the first," said David Jones, Southern
> Nuclear's site vice president for Units 3 and 4. "It is part of our
> job to make that happen."
>
> The company received an early site permit from the Nuclear
> Regulatory Commission in August and has moved more than 320 workers
> and a fleet of heavy equipment to the Burke County site, where 4
> million cubic yards of dirt are being excavated to prepare for the $14
> billion construction project.
>
> If all goes well with permitting and construction, the new units
> -- producing 1,170 megawatts apiece -- will go online in 2016 and
> 2017, Mr.
> Jones said. "I don't know of any other utility that has published a
> schedule that advanced."
>
> Across the nation, the NRC is evaluating 16 similar applications
> for
> 24 new reactors, but many of those projects remain on the drawing
> board and most are not as advanced as Vogtle's, which expects to
> receive its major final hurdle -- a combined operating license -- in
> 2011.
>
> Vogtle is among only four new nuclear projects that have received
> an early site permit, said NRC spokesman Roger Hannah. The other three
> are the Clinton site in Illinois, which has not yet filed a combined
> operating license request; the Grand Gulf project in Mississippi; and
> the North Anna project in Virginia, which remains in the
> environmental-impact- statement phase, he said.
>
> The existing units at Vogtle were among the last in the nation's
> current fleet of nuclear-generating plants to go online in the late
> 1980s, Mr. Jones said. Now the site is poised to lead the nation in
> what some have dubbed a "Nuclear Renaissance" that will bring jobs and
> electricity to growing areas, especially in the South.
>
> "There are a lot of reasons for added confidence today in meeting
> that schedule that we didn't have in the 1970s," he said.
>
> Decades ago, nuclear projects faced costly delays because of
> changes in rules and specifications that occurred as reactors were
> being planned and built. The combined operating license program,
> devised by the NRC to streamline the permitting process,
> simultaneously authorizes reactor construction and operation.
>
> "It's a big change," he said. "In the '70s and '80s, you got a
> construction license to build it over five years, and then you had to
> apply for a license to operate it," he said. "There was a lot of risk
> of changing expectations and changing technology that we don't have
> this time around."
>
> Much of the current work is focused on excavating the site to a
> depth of 95 feet, after which much of the dirt will be repacked to
> create a firm foundation.
>
> "We've recently gone to two 10-hour shifts, six days a week,"
> said
> Mark Tanner, the site's engineering construction liaison. "Right now
> they are moving about 20,000 cubic yards per shift."
>
> The 42-acre site, surrounded by more than seven miles of silt
> fence and erosion barriers, includes 79 wells that capture and remove
> water that seeps into the area during construction.
>
> Once online, the new reactors will roughly double the site's
> 850-person work force to 1,700. During the peak of construction,
> expected to occur in 2013-14, about 3,000 to 3,500 workers will be
> employed.
>
> In addition to the contractors at work on the new site, almost
> 800 temporary workers were at Vogtle's Unit 1 this week to refuel the
> reactor during one of its rare -- and costly -- scheduled outages.
>
> Ellie Daniel, a corporate communications specialist at the site,
> said the 25-day shutdown began Sept. 20 to allow scheduled maintenance
> and major refueling operations that are performed every 18 months.
> Unit 2 will undergo a similar refueling shutdown next spring. Such
> shutdowns cost the owners about $1 million a day in lost revenue.
>
> Reach Rob Pavey at 868-1222, ext. 119, or
> [email protected].