Georgia Power announced it has begun loading fuel into the nuclear reactor core of its Vogtle Unit 3 reactor in Georgia, a major milestone toward bringing online the nation’s first newly built commercial nuclear reactor in more than 30 years.
The announcement puts the Unit 3 reactor on track to come online in the first quarter of 2023. Unit 4 is expected to come online roughly six months after that, sometime in late 2023.
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The announcement comes after the plant’s operators, Southern Nuclear, got the green light to move forward with fuel loading from the National Regulatory Commission in August.
During fuel load, nuclear technicians and operators transfer 157 fuel assemblies one by one from the Unit 3 spent fuel pool to the Unit 3 reactor core, operators said.
After that is complete, the Vogtle Unit 3 reactor will undergo startup testing to demonstrate bringing the plant from shutdown mode to full capacity.
Georgia Power CEO Chris Womack hailed the start of the process as a “milestone” for Plant Vogtle and said it demonstrates “steady and evident progress at the nuclear expansion site.”
“These units are important to building the future of energy and will serve as clean, emission-free sources of energy for Georgians for the next 60 to 80 years,” he said.
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The Vogtle Unit 3 and Unit 4 reactors are the first to be built in the United States in three decades. Construction began in 2013, but since then, the project has faced a string of costly setbacks, putting the utility company billions over budget and months, if not years, behind its original schedule.
Georgia Power officials estimate that once operational, the new Unit 3 and Unit 4 reactors will power more than 500,000 homes and businesses.
