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Fuel Loading Only Major Milestone Left for Vogtle Unit 3 Nuclear Project

July 30, 2021

The post Fuel Loading Only Major Milestone Left for Vogtle Unit 3 Nuclear Project appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Tom Fanning, CEO of Southern Company, reported during the company’s earnings call on July 29 that hot functional testing (HFT) had been completed on Vogtle Unit 3, and that the “next and final major milestone” is fuel load. “We project fuel load to occur sometime near year-end 2021 or early in 2022,” he said.

The Vogtle nuclear power plant expansion project includes the addition of two new Westinghouse AP1000 reactors—Units 3 and 4 at a site near Waynesboro, Georgia, that has two existing units. (Unit 1 began operation in 1987 and Unit 2 began operation in 1989.) The project is owned by four partners—Southern Company subsidiary Georgia Power (45.7%), Oglethorpe Power Corp. (30%), Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (MEAG Power, 22.7%), and Dalton Utilities (1.6%).

Construction on Unit 3 and 4 has been a long, drawn-out process. Southern Nuclear (a subsidiary of Southern Company) filed for an early site permit (ESP) application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in August 2006.…

Mississippi PSC: Kemper Facility Should Operate Using Only Natural Gas

June 25, 2017

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The Mississippi Public Service Commission (MPSC) at an open meeting on June 21 unanimously passed a motion instructing its counsel to prepare an order pursuing potential solutions regarding the Kemper County Power Generation Facility.

In a press release, the MPSC said the “Kemper Facility should operate using only natural gas.” The commission said it wanted to remove risk from ratepayers for the lignite coal gasifier and related assets, and ensure no further rate increases were incurred by Mississippi Power Co. customers. (In fact, the commission strongly encouraged rate reductions, particularly for residential customers.)

Mississippi Power issued a statement on the MPSC decision. It said, “The PSC provided several guidelines to consider for the negotiations, including the possibility of the project only operating as a natural gas-fueled combined cycle plant. We expect the process for any negotiations and this new docket will be formally addressed as part of a proposed order the Commission will consider at their July 6 meeting. We look forward to reviewing the order.”…

Six Years After Fukushima, Only Three Reactors Operating in Japan, More Poised to Restart

March 10, 2017

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Six years after the Fukushima disaster prompted an electricity crisis in Japan and sent tremors throughout the world’s nuclear power sector, Japan is determined to continue its reliance on nuclear for nearly a fifth of its power needs in the long term.

Nuclear will make up 20% to 22% of Japan’s power mix by 2030, under a long-term plan issued in 2015, Hirohide Hirai, the director general of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), told attendees at CERAweek by IHS Markit, which is taking place in Houston this week.

On March 11, 2011, nearly a day after the 3-minute, 9.0-magnitude Great Tohoku Earthquake struck northeastern Japan—and unleashed a tsunami that killed 20,000 people—the world learned that Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s (TEPCO’s) Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear plants were in peril after rising waters inundated and disabled offsite power supplies.

All of Japan’s nuclear power plants were shut down for safety checks after the disaster. Six years later, only three of 45 operable reactors have come online: Kyushu Electric’s Sendai 1 and 2 (restarted in 2015), and Shikoku Electric Power Co.’s…