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One of the owners of the only nuclear power plant still under construction in the United States voted Monday to continue construction despite escalating costs.
In response to pressure from state and federal authorities, the Georgia Electricity Authority has decided to expand Alvin W. Vogtle's power plant project, which is expected to cost more than $ 27 billion. more than double the original estimates.
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Atlanta, which is the largest owner of Vogtle, said earlier this year that costs had risen by $ 2.2 billion. This forced the other major owners, Oglethorpe Power Corp. and the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia, known as MEAG, to decide on its maintenance.
Georgia Power's Southern unit owns 45.7% of the plant, while Oglethorpe owns 30% and the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia 22.7%. Dalton Utilities owns the remaining 1.6%, but does not have enough equity to defeat the project.
The South has supported the advance and Oglethorpe Power is also expected to vote on Monday. Customers have been criticized by customers in the electricity sector and others who say nuclear expansion has become a boondoggle that will impose higher rates for years. Earlier this month, a company in Jacksonville, Florida, which agreed to buy electricity from Vogtle, filed a lawsuit and advertised that the project be abandoned.
Owners have also come under increasing pressure from pro-completion politicians. Georgia Governor Nathan Deal offered his full support for Vogtle's expansion, citing more than 6,000 jobs created. The US Department of Energy, which had provided generous federal loan guarantees to support the project, said it would seek an accelerated repayment if the project was abandoned.
The decision to continue, for the moment, keeps alive the only nuclear power station under construction, even serious, in the United States.
Last year, the only other nuclear power plant under construction in the country, the V.C. Summer Nuclear Generating Station in South Carolina, after also experiencing billions of cost overruns and years of delays. The decision to close the plant sparked a political debate over who should pay its billions of dollars.
The national nuclear industry has struggled to remain competitive. Several older nuclear power plants, built in the 1960s and 1970s, have closed in recent years, unable to compete with newer plants that burn low-cost natural gas. Others have sought new grants to continue their activities.
If the partners had abandoned Vogtle, the decision would have marked the end of a campaign to overthrow the industry. Vogtle is the last vestige of what was supposed to be a new wave of nuclear power plants in the United States, using Westinghouse Electric Co.'s modular reactors that were cheaper and easier to build than previous models.
But he has faced many setbacks since the start of the work ten years ago. Nuclear regulators had to change their design after the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. The increased costs of the plant plunged Westinghouse, designer and former construction contractor of Vogtle, into bankruptcy. The project struggled to recruit and retain qualified construction workers. There have also been problems of quality control of parts manufactured for the factory.
Write to Russell Gold at [email protected]
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