Regulators Vote Yes to Move Forward on Vogtle Nuclear Plant in Georgia

Nuclear Power Industry

Date posted: 09/24/17

Mary Landers reports that the Georgia Public Service Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to accept a scheduling order on the troubled Plant Vogtle expansion that consumer and clean energy advocates warned might not be in the best interest of ratepayers. Vogtle’s two new nuclear reactors were initially scheduled to have been up and running in April, but the project has been plagued by delays and cost overruns capped by the bankruptcy of its main contractor, Westinghouse, last spring. A parallel project in South Carolina has been abandoned. The analyses of the Public Service Commission staff show the Georgia project may never be viable, but elected commissioners have signaled they want the project to move forward as has Georgia Power, which owns nearly half the project. Georgia Power spokesman Jacob Hawkins on Tuesday reiterated his previous statement that the company is doing what’s required of it for Vogtle Construction Monitoring, or VCM. “We filed the 17th VCM Report and recommendation to move forward with the Vogtle expansion on August 31, including responses to specific issues requested by the Georgia PSC such as the reasonableness of the revised cost and schedule forecast,” he wrote in an email. “It is ultimately up to the Georgia PSC to determine the structure of each VCM proceeding — we will continue to work with the Georgia PSC and all parties through the VCM process.