Offsetting the shock of this week's announcement that FirstEnergy intends to shut down its entire fleet of nuclear plants (Davis-Besse, Perry and Beaver Valley) early - the first whole fleet early shutdown declaration in this increasingly dreary nuclear season - we have some good news of the progress underway at Plant Vogtle in Georgia.
Georgia Power has filmed and posted two impressive videos, which we present to you this week. The first shows the emplacement of the reactor vessel at Unit 4 of Plant Vogtle. Georgia Power issued a press release which included the following on the reactor vessel and other progress at Vogtle:
Georgia Power announced today the placement of the nuclear reactor vessel inside Unit 4 containment at the Vogtle nuclear expansion project near Waynesboro, Georgia. Standing 35 feet tall, the reactor vessel functions as a heat source from the nuclear fission process to produce steam that will generate electricity for homes and businesses throughout Georgia...
The Vogtle nuclear expansion is being completed using components and materials from across the United States, as well as being delivered via an international supply chain. The 306-ton reactor vessel was fabricated by Doosan Heavy Industries in South Korea, shipped through the Port of Savannah and arrived at the construction site via train on a specialized rail car.
The placement of the reactor vessel is the latest milestone accomplished at the Vogtle site. Earlier this month, Georgia Power announced the placement of 2,400 cubic yards of concrete for the Unit 4 "turbine tabletop." The company also recently filed the 18th Vogtle Construction Monitoring (VCM) Report with the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) highlighting additional progress at the site through the end of 2017. The report also noted improved productivity with direct construction work tracking ahead of the plan to achieve the target in-service dates of November 2021 (Unit 3) and November 2022 (Unit 4). (GEORGIA POWER, MARCH 29, 2018.)
See the video of the reactor vessel emplacement here:
The second video is an interesting flyover view of both of the new AP1000 nuclear plants under construction at Vogtle, showing progress and comparing completion of Units 3 and 4 to each other.
As an extra added bonus, here is a time lapse video showing eight years' worth of construction at the Plant Vogtle expansion condensed down to just two minutes!
