Georgia Power has announced a resequencing of certain planned activities at units 3 and 4 of the US Vogtle nuclear power plant.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, Georgia Power and Southern Nuclear have made "significant adjustments" to work practices at the construction site, designed to protect the health and safety of the project workforce while maintaining productivity.
“These adjustments, along with continued challenges in electrical construction productivity, have required work to be performed differently, necessitating a resequencing of activities,” the company said.
Georgia Power said that as a result the planned timing of the structural integrity test and integrated leak rate testing for Vogtle 3,will occur before cold hydro testing. The start of cold hydro testing has now been moved from July to the fall of 2020.
The company added that it "continues to work toward fuel load occurring in 2020; however, this milestone is not required to be achieved until later in 2021 to support the regulatory-approved in-service dates."
Glen Chick, executive vice president of Vogtle 3 & 4 Construction said: "Georgia Power and Southern Nuclear are continuing to employ an aggressive site work plan as part of a strategy to maintain margin to the regulatory-approved in-service dates and the resequencing of these activities reflects our efforts."
"The project team continues to accomplish major milestones despite the ongoing pandemic, while keeping safety and quality our top priority."
In May, the final unit for Vogtle 3 – a massive water tank – was placed atop the containment vessel and shield building roof.
The regulatory-approved in-service dates remain November 2021 and November 2022 for Vogtle 3&4, respectively. Construction of the two AP1000 units began in 2009. In May, Georgia Power said the project was 85% complete and construction of Vogtle 3 was 90% complete.
Photo: Vogtle 3 under construction (PRNewsfoto/Georgia Power)