Vogtle Is Finished. The Lessons for the Next US Reactor Are About Cost, Not Technology

On April 29, 2024, Georgia Power declared that Unit 4 at Plant Vogtle had entered commercial operation, completing the first new nuclear units built from scratch in the United States in more than 30 years. Unit 3 had started commercial service on July 31, 2023. With four reactors now running near Waynesboro, Georgia, Vogtle is the largest generator of clean electricity in the country, expected to produce more than 30 million megawatt hours a year.

Each of the new AP1000 units has a capacity of about 1,114 megawatts, enough, according to the utility, to serve roughly 500,000 homes and businesses for 60 to 80 years. The Associated Press reported that the two units came in seven years behind schedule and at a total cost of nearly USD 35 billion, including USD 31 billion spent by the four owners and USD 3.7 billion that Westinghouse paid the owners to walk away from construction after its 2017 bankruptcy.

The Vogtle expansion was approved by the Georgia Public Service Commission in 2009 and began construction under a fixed-price contract with Westinghouse and its construction partners. The pandemic added further delays, and testing found problems with electrical cables and other systems that required rework. By the time Unit 4 was finished, the project team had learned a great deal. At its peak, the site employed more than 9,000 workers, and the new units created around 800 permanent jobs.

Georgia Power customers have been paying for part of the project through their bills for years, under a state law allowing utilities to recover financing costs during construction. There is now a strong argument that the next AP1000 units would cost much less. The risk is that the knowledge built at Vogtle disperses before another project starts. For large electricity users looking for firm, carbon-free supply, Vogtle shows that nuclear power is achievable but that the price depends heavily on how the project is structured.