Plant Vogtle Unit 4 completes hot functional testing

Marisa Mecke, Augusta Chronicle
·2 min read
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FILE: An aerial view shows the two new reactors under construction at Plant Vogtle. Unit 3 is on the left and unit 4 is on the right. The two units are finishing off the final tests and steps necessary before getting energy on the grid.
FILE: An aerial view shows the two new reactors under construction at Plant Vogtle. Unit 3 is on the left and unit 4 is on the right. The two units are finishing off the final tests and steps necessary before getting energy on the grid.

Georgia Power announced this afternoon that Plant Vogtle has completed hot functional testing for Unit 4, the last big testing marker the unit must reach before nuclear fuel can be loaded.

“The energy and enthusiasm at the Vogtle site, and across our entire company, is high with Unit 3 in the final stages of startup testing and Unit 4 making progress towards safely loading fuel,” said Kim Greene, chairman, president and CEO of Georgia Power in a statement issued Monday. “The team at Unit 4 has been able to take lessons learned from Unit 3 and apply them."

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Step in the process

Hot functional testing is a critical test to ensure the nuclear reactor is ready before any fuel is loaded. Through a series of increases and decreases in temperature and pressure, the reactor is brought up to the temperature and pressure it will use during regular operation. During these tests, the engineers also practice emergency shut-offs.

Now, according to the Georgia Power statement, the team on-site will focus on submitting all the documentation of the tests and analyses to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to be verified so that fuel loading can take place.

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Early 2022: $30B Georgia Power nuclear plant delayed up to 6 more months

Plant Vogtle has been on a roll working toward Units 3's and 4's completion, but not without delays that have beleaguered the process and ballooned the original $14 billion price tag to around twice that. The units are key to Georgia Power's long-term strategic plan to decrease its use of highly-polluting energy sources like coal, and the two units are projected to power 500,000 homes and businesses.

For Georgia Power, the summer could hold another major mark for the project: Plant Vogtle Unit 3 could be in service as soon as this month or June after operators successfully started a nuclear reaction inside the chamber in late March.

Marisa Mecke is an environmental journalist. She can be reached at 912-328-4411 or at mmecke@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Plant Vogtle Unit 4 completes hot functional testing