Georgia Power announced the latest milestone at the Vogtle nuclear expansion near Waynesboro, Georgia – the placement of the third of four steam generators.  The 1.4 million-pound steam generator was recently lifted into the Unit 4 nuclear island and marks a significant accomplishment for the nation's only new nuclear units under construction. Steam generators, measuring nearly 80 feet long, are heat exchangers used to convert water into steam using the heat produced in a nuclear reactor core.

The steam generators for the new units were fabricated in South Korea and transported to the site via the Port of Savannah and then via rail. The final steam generator for the project is onsite and expected to be placed in the coming months. Watch a time-lapse video of the placement here.

Other milestones at the Vogtle site over the past two weeks include the installation of the fourth and final cooling water system pump for Unit 3. Each pump, weighing 62,000 pounds each, will circulate 160,000 gallons of water per minute, taking the cool water from the cooling tower basin and circulating it through the condensers in the turbine building to help cool the steam coming off the turbines. The warm water is then recirculated through the natural-draft cooling towers, where the heat is released to the atmosphere.

Georgia Power Files 19^th VCM Report
Georgia Power provides a full report every six months on the Vogtle nuclear expansion to the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) through the detailed, transparent Vogtle Construction Monitoring (VCM) process. The 19^th VCM Report, available here, outlines recent progress made at the site, as well as the latest information on cost and schedule for the project.  

Savings & Benefits for Customers
From the beginning of the Vogtle expansion, Georgia Power has worked with the Georgia PSC to pursue all available benefits for customers and minimize the impact of the new units on electric bills. A total of $75 in 2018 bill credits, or $188 million overall, was approved by the Georgia PSC as part of its order to continue construction of Vogtle 3 & 4 in December 2017. Georgia Power customers are receiving three separate $25 credits in 2018 with the third and final $25 credit expected to be issued in September. The credits are a direct result of parent guarantee payments for the Vogtle project from Toshiba available due to the strength of the original contract for the project and protections in place for Georgia electric customers.

Customers also continue to save money throughout 2018 under the company's updated 2018 Nuclear Construction Cost Recovery (NCCR) tariff. The tariff allows the company to collect financing costs for the Vogtle expansion every month, a structure which saves customers hundreds of millions of dollars by reducing financing and borrowing costs, while also phasing the new units into rates over time helping to avoid "rate shock" once the new units come online. As a result of the Toshiba parent guarantee payments and changes in federal tax law this year, customers will pay $139 million less than expected in 2018 for the Vogtle project with the typical residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours per month paying $1 less each month than they did in 2017.