The project management of the Vogtle nuclear expansion in the US State of Georgia is set to be taken over by Georgia Power and Southern Nuclear by late July from the original contractor Westinghouse.
According to Georgia Power, the new service agreement which was inked earlier this month is going through approval process, and will come into effect after securing the necessary approvals.
One of the approvals has to come from the bankruptcy court while there is also a requirement for Westinghouse to decline the current engineering, procurement and construction contract of the nuclear plant in Burke County near Waynesboro.
The service agreement comprises engineering, procurement and licensing support, and access to the intellectual property of Westinghouse that would be necessary for the expansion of the Vogtle nuclear power plant.
As part of the expansion project, Georgia Power and Southern Nuclear will construct Units 3 and 4 of the Vogtle Plant with each of them planned to have a capacity of 1.25GW.
Georgia Power stated that its recently signed agreement with Westinghouse’s parent company Toshiba remains intact. Under the terms, Toshiba has to pay $3.68bn as parental guarantees which will act as additional protections for Georgia electric customers following the bankruptcy of Westinghouse.
Under the deal that was approved by the US Department of Energy, Toshiba is expected to make an initial payment of $300m to Georgia Power in October.
Georgia Power also added that it would continue to work with the project's co-owners Oglethorpe Power, Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia Power and Dalton Utilities to conclude a full-scale schedule and cost-to-complete analysis. Later on, the utility will work with the Georgia Public Service Commission to come up with the best path ahead for customers.
Image: Vogtle 3 & 4 construction site, with Units 3 & 4 in the foreground, and operating units 1 & 2 in the background. Photo: courtesy of Georgia Power Company.