The announcement said all major milestones in 2019 for the new-build project had been successfully reached, including start of open RPV testing in November and main control room startup in December.
Southern Company said it confirms its “expected ability to meet” the November 2021 and November 2022 startup dates for Units 3 and 4. These deadlines had been communicated earlier to the US regulator and act as a “benchmark” for the project’s progress.
The company said its own in-service deadlines for the units are: May 2021 for Unit 3 and March 2022 for Unit 4. According to Thomas A. Fanning, Southern Company’s chief executive, an “aggressive site work plan” has been put in place since April 2019 to help achieve these targets.
Under the plan, Vogtle-3 is scheduled to begin cold testing around mid-June 2020, hot testing around mid-August 2020, and fuel loading in late November 2020.
Southern Company also said no changes were made to the expected overall capital cost forecast for the project in 2019.
Vogtle-3 and twin Vogtle-4, both Westinghouse AP1000 pressurised water reactor units, are the first commercial nuclear plants to be built in the US in a generation and the only new units under construction in the country.
Southern Company owns 45.7% of the Vogtle project via its subsidiary Georgia Power. The other co-owners are Oglethorpe Power with 30%, MEAG Power with 22.7% and Dalton Utilities with the remaining 1.6%.
Southern Nuclear, which operates nuclear plants for Georgia Power, took over project management from Westinghouse in 2017.