Atlanta, U.S.A. — Testing has begun on a major component in the construction of two new nuclear units at Plant Vogtle 3 and 4 – a 560-foot tall heavy lift derrick, one of the biggest cranes in the world.

The derrick, which will be used to move large pieces at the site of the first new nuclear units built in the United States in 30 years, has the capacity to move the equivalent of five 747 jets across the distance of more than three-and-a-half football fields in a single lift.

In addition, major components will begin arriving to the site later this year and early 2013, the first of which will be the reactor vessel for Unit 3. The Unit 3 condensers have arrived from South Korea, where they were manufactured. Unit 3 is scheduled to go online in 2016, and Unit 4 will follow in 2017.

Also at the site, significant work has been done on turbine islands, cooling towers and nuclear islands. Over the next several months, progress will continue to be made in the nuclear island, turbine building and module assemblies.

“The project is progressing extremely well, especially when compared to other large-scale infrastructure projects worldwide,” said Joseph A. “Buzz” Miller, executive vice president of Nuclear Development for Georgia Power and Southern Nuclear. “The Vogtle 3 and 4 project provides at least $2.2 billion more value to customers than the next best available technology, according to Georgia Public Service Commission staff.”

The construction of Vogtle 3 and 4 is the largest job-producing project in Georgia, employing approximately 5000 people during peak construction and creating 800 permanent jobs when the plant begins operating. Once complete, the new units will produce enough electricity to power 500,000 Georgia homes and businesses.

Southern Nuclear, a subsidiary of Southern Company, is overseeing construction and will operate the two new 1,100-megawatt AP1000 units for Georgia Power and co-owners Oglethorpe Power Corporation, the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and Dalton Utilities. Georgia Power owns 45.7 percent of the new units, with a certified cost of $6.1 billion.

Georgia Power is the largest subsidiary of Southern Company, one of the nation’s largest generators of electricity. The company is an investor-owned, tax-paying utility with rates below the national average. Georgia Power serves 2.4 million customers in all but four of Georgia’s 159 counties.

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The small New England state of Vermont is battling the U.S. government over control of the state’s lone nuclear power plant. A federal court denied the state’s recent attempt to shut down the 40-year-old Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant for safety concerns. Vermont lawmakers must now decide if they want to appeal the decision and risk a high stakes legal fight that could affect how the nuclear energy industry is regulated.

In 2010 the Vermont Senate voted not to renew the plant’s operating license after 2012, claiming that the plant’s owner, Entergy, had falsified reports and ignored operational problems. Entergy sued the state claiming that they were attempting to override the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Agency’s decision that the plant was safe to continue operating. Entergy said only the federal government, not individual states, can evaluate plant safety.

U.S. District Judge Garvan Murtha sided with Entergy, saying that despite the state’s claim that it was troubled by operational mismanagement at the plant, their real motive was concern over safety. Murtha noted in his decision that transcripts of the Vermont Senate debates leading up to their vote to close the plant were filled with discussion of the plant’s safety, particularly with references to reports of radioactive tritium leaking into the nearby Connecticut River.

Environmental activists and a majority of state lawmakers had been pushing to shut down Vermont Yankee for many years, but their concerns took on a new urgency with the disaster at Japan’s Fukishima Daiichi plant in 2011. The Fukishima reactors were similar in design to Vermont Yankee’s, and the Connecticut River, which would absorb most of the radiation if a major leak occurred, flows through densely populated areas in western Massachusetts and Connecticut before emptying into Long Island Sound near New York City.

Supporters for keeping the plant open say the state and regional power grids need the electricity it produces to hold down energy costs. Others say that the overall safety record at the plant is good, and that nuclear power must be part of the alternative energy mix if the US is going to reduce its dependence on oil and coal burning plants. Critics argue that continuing to operate a leaky, 40-year-old nuclear reactor is not a smart way to fight global warming.

Vermont can appeal the court’s decision or it can attempt to have its public service board, which regulates energy prices, impose restrictions on the plant that would make it too expensive to operate. But either approach is likely to trigger a legal battle with Entergy, a national corporation with very deep pockets that operates nuclear plants throughout the country.

The state has already spent millions trying to shut the plant down without success, and after the court ruled in Entergy’s favor, the company has now demanded that the state reimburse its $4.6 million in legal costs. Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin, who just completed his first year in office, sided with environmental activists during his campaign, and has vowed to continue his efforts to close the plant despite the setback.

But Shumlin’s political opponents and Vermont business leaders say the state’s fragile economy cannot afford the jolt in energy prices that would occur if Vermont Yankee were to stop operating. With Vermont facing a $176 million deficit and still repairing the damage from Hurricane Irene last August, the state should cut its losses and give up the fight, they say.

So far, Shumlin and Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell have remained silent on their next move. Backing down might make financial sense, but it would also strike a significant blow against states trying to regulate nuclear power plants within their borders. With the Obama administration promoting nuclear power as a key component of its strategy to rebuild America’s energy infrastructure, their decision could have far reaching consequences.

Image Courtesy of  Nuclear Regulatory Commission (United States Nuclear Regulatory Comission) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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