2023-08-03 05:16:03
Reactor No. 3 of the Vogtle nuclear power plant in the United States / Image: Georgia Power.
The United States has just commissioned its second nuclear reactor since the beginning of the 21st century. The start-up of reactor no. 3 at the Vogtle power plant (Georgia), which will be followed by that of reactor no. 4 at the beginning of 2024, however marks the end of an era. From now on, all American nuclear projects should take the form of SMR (Small Modular Reactor).
This Monday, July 31, the American electricity supplier Georgia Power has just announced the commissioning of reactor no. 3 at the Voglte nuclear power plant in Georgia. Contrary to what is indicated by many media, it is not regarding the first nuclear reactor to be inaugurated for 30 years in the United States. Indeed, in 2016, the country connected reactor No. 2 of the Watts Bar power plant (Tennessee), adding 1,165 MWe to the network.
The commissioning of Vogtle 3 should be followed by the start-up of reactor No. 4 in the first quarter of 2024, making Vogtle the most powerful nuclear power plant in the country with nearly 4,600 MWe installed. These two new units, called AP-1000 and whose construction began in 2013, are 3rd generation pressurized water reactors, designed by Westinghouse. Two other reactors of the same type were initially to see the light of day at the Virgil Summer plant in South Carolina. The project was finally abandoned in 2017.
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First project to be approved following 1979 and the Three Mile Island incident in Pennsylvania (the most serious nuclear incident in the history of the country), the construction of the two new Vogtle reactors has not been a long calm river . The project has multiplied delays and budget overruns, since the commissioning of this first reactor should have taken place in 2016. On the financial side, the total cost had been estimated at 14 billion dollars for the construction of the two reactors. But according to the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia, the investment would now exceed 30 billion dollars.
Focus on SMR mini nuclear reactors
Units 3 and 4 of the Voglte plant are expected to be the last conventional nuclear reactors to be commissioned in the United States. The country does not intend to abandon nuclear power, but prefers to turn to SMR (Small Modular Reactor). Several such projects are in development and promise to be cheaper, easier to build and safer. Proof of this change of direction, the country now has around twenty SMR projects under development.
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