US Georgia Power (a Southern Company subsidiary) says units 3 and 4 at the Vogtle NPP are now more than 60% complete. The two Westinghouse-designed AP1000 reactors have been under construction since 2013, with unit 3 expected to enter service by mid-2019 and unit 4 by mid-2020. Recent key achievements include placement of 150 cubic metres of concrete to fill the walls of new shield building panels for unit 3; placement of more than 1,376 cubic metres of concrete to fill the walls of the CA20 module; installation of component cooling water pumps on the unit 3 turbine building; placement of concrete for the elevated roof slab on the southwest corner of the unit 4 turbine building; and the completion of vertical seam welds on placed shield building panels for unit 3.
The 1,000t CA20 module, which is more than 21 metres tall, will house plant systems including fuel handling and used fuel storage areas. Unit 3's CA20 module was lifted into place in March 2014, and its walls were filled with concrete during a 45-hour continuous pouring operation completed earlier this month. Work on unit 4's CA20 module continues in the on-site modular assembly building. Meanwhile, work is continuing on activities including welding of the vessel top head for Vogtle 3.
