With 95,881 MW of nuclear power capacity at 93 operating commercial reactors, the United States has more nuclear capacity than any other country. Work resumed in 2007, and the reactor came online in 2016. Construction on Watts Bar 2 began in 1973 but was suspended in 1985. Prior to Vogtle Unit 3, the last nuclear reactor to start in the United States was Watts Bar Unit 2 in Tennessee. nuclear reactors were built in the 20-year period from 1970 to 1990. The first commercial nuclear power reactor in the United States came online in December 1957 in Shippingport, Pennsylvania. Two other Westinghouse AP1000 reactors were planned for a nuclear power plant in South Carolina, but construction was halted in 2017. deployment of the AP1000 Generation III+ reactor. It also features robust passive safety systems that can shut down the reactor without any operator action or external power source. This next generation advanced reactor has a smaller footprint and simpler design than previous generation reactor technologies. The total cost of the project is now estimated at more than $30 billion.īoth Vogtle Units 3 and 4 use a new reactor design, the Westinghouse AP1000. Originally expected to cost $14 billion and begin commercial operation in 2016 (Vogtle 3) and 2017 (Vogtle 4), the project ran into significant construction delays and cost overruns. The two new reactors will make Plant Vogtle the largest nuclear power plant in the country, surpassing the 4,210 MW Palo Verde plant in Arizona.Ĭonstruction at the two new reactor sites began in 2009. Georgia Power expects another similar-sized fourth reactor, Vogtle Unit 4, to begin operation sometime between November 2023 and March 2024. The plant’s first two reactors, with a combined 2,430 MW of nameplate capacity, came online in the late 1980s. The new 1,114 megawatt (MW) Unit 3 reactor joins two existing reactors at Plant Vogtle, which is jointly owned by Georgia Power and three other electric utility companies. It is the first new nuclear reactor to start up in the United States since the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar 2 was commissioned in 2016. Note: Data excludes capacity built and retired before 2002.Ī new reactor at Georgia’s Vogtle nuclear power plant is now in commercial operation, according to an announcement from Georgia Power, one of the plant’s owners. Energy Information Administration, Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory, and Georgia Power press release
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