The Georgia Public Service Commission voted unanimously Thursday to continue construction of the nation’s only new nuclear power plant.
The approved construction of Plant Vogtle reactors 3 and 4 saves the plant from being scrapped, with a planned completion date of 2022.
The fate of the plant had been in limbo after the bankruptcy of one of the plant’s main developers, Westinghouse.
The Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry top trade group, welcomed the Georgia commission’s decision as important for national security.
“Demonstrating we can build and complete new nuclear plants here in America will help us regain our leadership in a technology we invented,” said Maria Korsnick, the group’s president. “America’s pre-eminence in nuclear energy makes our country safer because it allows us to influence and control how this technology is used around the world.”
The plant is seen as the harbinger of the future of the U.S. nuclear power industry as it faces stifling economic pressure from the electric market’s switch to low-cost natural gas-fired electricity. Only a handful of nuclear plants are planned in the country, mainly in the Southeast.
At the same time, a number of older nuclear power plants have announced, or are contemplating, closing down prematurely as financial losses mount.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is considering approving a plan proposed by Energy Secretary Rick Perry to shore up the aging nuclear plant fleet by providing the plants with market-based incentives.
FERC is expected to approve the plan next month.
