Vogtle Unit 4 begins commercial operations – Watts Up With That?

The US Energy and Information Administration reports,

May 1, 2024

Vogtle Unit 4 factory begins commercial operation

Data sources: US Energy Information Administration, Annual generator report

Georgia Electric announced This week, the 1,114 megawatt (MW) Unit 4 nuclear power reactor at Plant Vogtle near Waynesboro, Georgia, entered commercial operation after connecting to the city’s power grid. March 2024. The commercial launch of Unit 4 will complete an 11-year expansion project at Plant Vogtle. There are currently no nuclear reactors under construction in the United States.

Vogtle lesson 3 Started commercial operations at July 2023. The plant’s first two reactors have a total capacity of 2,430 MW gearbox capacitybegan operating in 1987 and 1989. The two new reactors increased Plant Vogtle’s total generating capacity to nearly 5 gigawatts (GW), surpassing the 4,210 MW Palo Verde plant in Arizona and making Vogtle’s four units the largest nuclear power plant in the United States.

Construction at two new reactor sites started in 2009. Initially expected to cost $14 billion and begin commercial operations in 2016 (Vogtle 3) and 2017 (Vogtle 4), the project has encountered significant construction delays and cost overruns. . Georgia Power currently estimates the total cost of the project will be more than 30 billion USD.

The commercial operation date is when the reactor builders hand over the reactor to the plant owner or operator, declaring the reactor officially in commercial operation.

With total settings capacity With a capacity of approximately 97 GW, the largest fleet of commercial nuclear generators of any country is located in the United States. The operating nuclear power reactor fleet accounts for nearly 19% of domestic electricity generation by 2023, making nuclear the second largest source of US electricity generation after natural gas, which accounts for 43% of electricity generation. in the United States last year.

Power generation from nuclear reactors does not produce CO₂ emissions and can provide baseload power that largely comes from coal and natural gas plants. Although several nuclear reactors have been decommissioned in recent years, care about Consideration of nuclear energy as an energy source to help reduce the carbon emissions of the US electric power industry has increased recently.

Both Vogtle Unit 3 and 4 use the newer reactor design, the Westinghouse AP1000. This reactor has a smaller footprint and simpler design than previous generation reactor technologies. It also features passive safety systems intended to shut down the reactor without any operator action or external power source.

Vogtle Units 3 and 4 are the first and only units to deploy AP1000 Generation III+ reactors in the United States. Two more Westinghouse AP1000 reactors were planned for a nuclear power plant in South Carolina, but utilities there halted construction in 2017.

More information about U.S. nuclear production and capabilities is available on our website. United States nuclear power generation and production capacity webpage.