Commercial operation of a new reactor at a Georgia nuclear power plant has been delayed for at least another month. Georgia Power says Unit 3 at Plant Vogtle has a problem in the hydrogen system that is used to cool its main electrical generator which is not a part of the reactor itself.
That unit is located in a separate building where steam from the heat created by fission in the nuclear reactor is piped to spin a turbine generating up to 1,100 megawatts of electricity. The company says the problem was a degraded seal with the reactor shut down while repairs are made.
Unit three has made it to full power output but that power is not yet available to customers. The fourth reactor has finished a key testing phase and operators expect to start loading radioactive fuel between July and October, aiming for the reactor to reach commercial operation between December and March 2024.
In Georgia, almost every electric customer will pay for Vogtle. Georgia Power’s 2.7 million customers are already paying part of the financing cost and elected public service commissioners have approved a monthly rate increase of $3.78 a month for residential customers as soon as the third unit begins generating power.
