Location announced for proposed reactors at Vogtle





STAFF PHOTO BY DAVID ROYAL The building site for the proposed reactors will be in the foreground of this photo, about 300 yards due west of the towers.

STAFF PHOTO BY DAVID ROYAL The building site for the proposed reactors will be in the foreground of this photo, about 300 yards due west of the towers.

Those holding their breath for a Plant Vogtle announcement had better go ahead and exhale.

Southern Company officials say it will probably be 2009 before they decide whether to build two new reactors in Burke County.

“We’d be building a plant that would operate for 40 years,” Lou Long, vice president of Technical Support for Southern Nuclear Operating Company, said during a private tour of the plant last Thursday. “We have to look at the entire life of the plant.”

Long said the biggest factors behind the decision are cost and future power needs.

“If gas prices were to drop dramatically, we might decide not to build,” he explained. “Or if the environment for coal or oil changed, that would be consideration.”

If Burke County gets the go-ahead most residents are expecting, the first concrete would be poured in late 2010.

In the meantime, all of the pieces seem to be falling into place for the proposed site. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has already booked the auditorium at Augusta Technical College’s Waynesboro Campus for May 11 to discuss the company’s early site permit with local leaders and residents.

Some of the concerns expected to surface at the meeting are the long-term storage of radioactive waste and the additional water the new reactors would pull from the Savannah River.

Despite these concerns, most local leaders remain supportive and say they look forward to more jobs and more tax revenue.

According to Ellie Daniel, Corporate Communications Specialist for Southern Company, 1,500 to 2,000 jobs would be created during the construction phase and around 900 employees would remain permanently. Currently, 905 are employed at the plant.

Construction time would be considerably shorter than in the

1980s since modular portions of reactors would be built off-site and shipped in for final assembly.

The gravity-driven reactors would be about 50 percent smaller than the existing pair, with less piping, wiring and valves.

The reactors would be in a separate facility about 300 yards due west of the existing twin towers.

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