Southern GA. Vogtle Renewal Gets Environmental OK

December 12, 2008

NEW YORK, -- Reuters - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission completed the environmental part of the license renewal proceeding for Southern Co's 2,301-megawatt Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia, the NRC said in a release Thursday.

The NRC concluded there were no environmental impacts that would preclude license renewal for an additional 20 years of operation.

The current operating licenses for the Vogtle Units 1 and 2 expire Jan. 16, 2027 and Feb. 9, 2029.

Southern submitted the renewal application in June 2007.

Since 2000, when the NRC approved of its first 20-year license renewal, the Commission has approved 26 applications (some for multiple units). It is now evaluating 13 applications, including Vogtle.

It usually takes the NRC about 23 months (June 2009) to make a decision on a license renewal without a hearing and about 31 months
(Jan.
2010) with a hearing.

The NRC uses the license renewal process to determine how an
operator
will manage the aging of a reactor. It is a two-step process, including
a
safety and environmental review.

The publication of the final environmental impact statement ends
the
environmental review.

On the safety front, the agency staff is completing its safety evaluation report, and the NRC's Advisory Committee on Reactor
Safeguards
will evaluate that report and make its recommendation before the agency makes a final decision.

The 2,301 MW Vogtle station is in Waynesboro in Burke County
about 105
miles southwest of Columbia, South Carolina. There are two units at the
station: the 1,152 MW Unit 1, which entered service in 1987, and the
1,149
MW Unit 2 (1989).

One MW powers about 500 homes in Georgia.

Southern's Southern Nuclear Operating Co Inc subsidiary operates
the
station for its owners: Southern's Georgia Power (45.7 percent),
Oglethorpe
Power Corp (30 percent), Municipal Electrical Authority of Georgia (22.7
percent) and the City of Dalton (1.6 percent).

In March 2008, the NRC approved a 1.7 percent up-rate for the two reactors. Workers installed equipment to up-rate Unit 1 during the
spring
and Unit 2 during the fall of 2008.

Southern, of Atlanta, owns and operates more than 42,000 MW of generating capacity, markets energy commodities, and transmits and distributes electricity to nearly 4.4 million customers in Georgia,
Alabama,
Mississippi and Florida.