SW Georgia Eyed For New Nuclear Plant (Columbus, Savannah: how much, transfer)

[Airforceguy]

Kinda interesting that Georgia Power is considering another nuclear power plant consider all of the trouble they've had with Plant Vogtle....

Georgia Power has selected a site in Southwest Georgia – Stewart County to be exact – to begin study that could bring construction of a new nuclear power plant in 2030. Kristi Swartz of EnergyWire/Environment & Energy Publishing has some of the details.

Georgia Power has identified a site in Stewart County that is “suitable for further study and evaluation,” according to a document filed as a response to the Georgia Public Service Commission staff. The staff asked for more information on what, specifically, the company will do over the next five years to preserve nuclear power as an option after it was mentioned in its long-term Integrated Resource Plan.

Georgia Power said it estimates that it will take roughly seven years to secure approval from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission and an additional 10 years to gain state regulatory approvals and build. This is without detailed site evaluation, preparation and planning as well as obtaining a litany of additional local, state and federal permits, especially if the reactors have a new design and are on a new site.

The company evaluated its existing Plant Vogtle site, and it was not identified as a site to further study at this time, spokesman Jacob Hawkins said.

This is why the utility said it needs to start now to make sure it can add more nuclear to its fleet during the 2030 decade if necessary. But Georgia Power made it equally clear that this should not be taken as a commitment that the utility would be building those reactors.

SW Georgia Eyed For New Nuclear Plant | GeorgiaPol

[Columbus1984]

Guess this would have a similar impact on Columbus like Vogle is doing for augusta.

[bellhead]

How many units Ga. Power builds there depends on how much water they can draw from the Chattahoochee river.

When I worked as a contractor at Ga. Power people knew they were looking to put several reactors in S. Ga. and 2 to 4 more in NW Florida & several more in Northern Alabama.

The type of reactor will probably be the Westinghouse APR 1000 or the newer CAP1400/1700 which are larger versions of the APR 1000 design.

What will probably happen is Southern Company will announce the construction of several reactors from 4 to 20 of the same type all within 250 miles of each other. This will allow them to start a plant every year and use an assembly line approach in order to meet timelines and hold costs down. Per people I talked to the Vogtle 4 is around 75% the cost of Vogtle 3 due to learning experiences. They will step back and evaluate what went wrong and what went good and proceed.

China is looking to build over 100 APR 1000 or the newer CAP1400/1700 within the next 20 years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AP1000

Video/Photos | What We're Doing | Southern Company

A little more info on Ga. Power's Base power production. Currently Ga. Power generates the majority of it's base which is everyday usage. The two big coal plants Bowen and Scherer generate around 6 gig's of electricity 24x7. The 4 nuclear plants which product around 5 Gig's and the Combined Cycle Gas Plants. When Vogtle 3&4 come online a lot of the smaller coal plants are going to shut down. This will provide a huge decrease in the amount of emissions.

What it all comes down to for Southern is making money and Nuclear plants while having a huge sunk cost are very consistent performers with very low fuel costs. The current administration in GA is allowing Southern to prepay all costs via fees on rate payers bills.

[Southern man]

Originally Posted by bellhead

How many units Ga. Power builds there depends on how much water they can draw from the Chattahoochee river.

When I worked as a contractor at Ga. Power people knew they were looking to put several reactors in S. Ga. and 2 to 4 more in NW Florida & several more in Northern Alabama.

The type of reactor will probably be the Westinghouse APR 1000 or the newer CAP1400/1700 which are larger versions of the APR 1000 design.

What will probably happen is Southern Company will announce the construction of several reactors from 4 to 20 of the same type all within 250 miles of each other. This will allow them to start a plant every year and use an assembly line approach in order to meet timelines and hold costs down. Per people I talked to the Vogtle 4 is around 75% the cost of Vogtle 3 due to learning experiences. They will step back and evaluate what went wrong and what went good and proceed.

China is looking to build over 100 APR 1000 or the newer CAP1400/1700 within the next 20 years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AP1000

Video/Photos | What We're Doing | Southern Company

A little more info on Ga. Power's Base power production. Currently Ga. Power generates the majority of it's base which is everyday usage. The two big coal plants Bowen and Scherer generate around 6 gig's of electricity 24x7. The 4 nuclear plants which product around 5 Gig's and the Combined Cycle Gas Plants. When Vogtle 3&4 come online a lot of the smaller coal plants are going to shut down. This will provide a huge decrease in the amount of emissions.

What it all comes down to for Southern is making money and Nuclear plants while having a huge sunk cost are very consistent performers with very low fuel costs. The current administration in GA is allowing Southern to prepay all costs via fees on rate payers bills.

YATES units 1-5 Scrapped
Branch units 1-4 Scrapped, I think
Mitchell unit 1 Scrapped
Atkinson units 1-4 Scrapped
I believe there are more that have been scrapped, but I forgot the names.

[toll_booth]

Originally Posted by Airforceguy

Kinda interesting that Georgia Power is considering another nuclear power plant consider all of the trouble they've had with Plant Vogtle....

SW Georgia Eyed For New Nuclear Plant | GeorgiaPol

Oh god no. Those things are water hogs. The last thing we need is to get mired in more water wars with Alabama and Florida.

[bellhead]

Southern Man,

Don't think Ga. Power did this because of emissions though, they only did this because of the costs savings.

Plant Kraft in Savannah, Plant McManus, in Brunswick were also shut down. The plants you mentioned above were smaller plants under 1 gig with older units which cost a lot of money to maintain.

The APR 1000 type units have a 60 year life span on them and the fuel cost to run them is very low and when the rate payer is picking up the majority of the construction cost then what is to loose.

[Southern man]

Originally Posted by bellhead

Southern Man,

Don't think Ga. Power did this because of emissions though, they only did this because of the costs savings.

Plant Kraft in Savannah, Plant McManus, in Brunswick were also shut down. The plants you mentioned above were smaller plants under 1 gig with older units which cost a lot of money to maintain.

The APR 1000 type units have a 60 year life span on them and the fuel cost to run them is very low and when the rate payer is picking up the majority of the construction cost then what is to loose.

They scrapped them because it would cost too much to make them meet the upcoming EPA requirements, so yes it was cost savings.

[bellhead]

Originally Posted by Southern man

They scrapped them because it would cost too much to make them meet the upcoming EPA requirements, so yes it was cost savings.

Don't let their PR department blow smoke up your butt...

A lot of the units that were closed were in need of major repairs, older units at the end of their lifespan, smaller units that had the same manpower operating costs as much larger units. An example of the operating costs for example. Plant McIntosh is a Combined Cycle gas plant which produces 1.2 Gigawatts of energy there are about 40 full time plant employees, Plant Kraft was a Coal Fired Power Plant with 4 units. The largest if I remember correctly was a 80KW coal fired Boiler and the plant produced about 200 Megawatts total. Kraft had about 80 full time personal at the plant. The other plants being closed had the same efficiency issues, Ga. Power just used the war on coal narrative as the reasons they closed those plants. Also nobody lost their jobs all people at the plants were offered transfers or training to move to other plants within the system. Several I know were going to Vogtle as the nuclear side paid about $5 more per hour and had more OT opportunities.

[toll_booth]

Originally Posted by bellhead

Don't let their PR department blow smoke up your butt...

A lot of the units that were closed were in need of major repairs, older units at the end of their lifespan, smaller units that had the same manpower operating costs as much larger units. An example of the operating costs for example. Plant McIntosh is a Combined Cycle gas plant which produces 1.2 Gigawatts of energy there are about 40 full time plant employees, Plant Kraft was a Coal Fired Power Plant with 4 units. The largest if I remember correctly was a 80KW coal fired Boiler and the plant produced about 200 Megawatts total. Kraft had about 80 full time personal at the plant. The other plants being closed had the same efficiency issues, Ga. Power just used the war on coal narrative as the reasons they closed those plants. Also nobody lost their jobs all people at the plants were offered transfers or training to move to other plants within the system. Several I know were going to Vogtle as the nuclear side paid about $5 more per hour and had more OT opportunities.

OK I just read up on Plant McIntosh. It uses air compression energy storage, which is literally only used on this scale in one other place in the world, and that is in Huntorf, Germany.

[Southern man]

Originally Posted by toll_booth

OK I just read up on Plant McIntosh. It uses air compression energy storage, which is literally only used on this scale in one other place in the world, and that is in Huntorf, Germany.

Wrong company. Plant McIntosh is in Georgia. The one you are speaking of is in McIntosh, Alabama and is owned by a different company.