The Vogtle plant remains a controversy because Biden, the congress, is funding the nuclear expansion

By David Pendered

With Congress and the Biden government supporting the nuclear power industry with 8.5 billion US dollars, the construction project for the Vogtle power plant remains above budget, behind schedule and has been criticized by watchdogs.

It is positive for Vogtle that the newly financed federal policy for the use of nuclear energy to reduce CO2 emissions is an endorsement of nuclear energy as part of the national energy portfolio. The facility benefited in November from approval from the state utility company to allow Georgia Power to pass construction costs on to customers. Interest rate hikes are slated to begin one month after a reactor begins delivering electricity. According to a report by independent observers, the project is expected to be completed within 18 months.

On the negative side, the construction of the two Vogtle units is behind schedule. The latest estimated start-up dates are no earlier than December 2022 and March 2023, according to a report from two independent monitors to utility regulators dated December 1. In addition, the Georgia Conservation Voters watchdog group issued a report urging voters to oust all members of the state civil service commission, and the state legislature should set up a supervisory board “Don’t do anything like that in Georgia.” happened again ”.

The GCV report “Ratepayer Robbery – The True Cost of Plant Vogtle” is presented as a 32-page summary of the Vogtle project, the regulatory environment and a four-stage call-to-action that reads:

The PSC should protect retail customers from some rate hikes; incumbent PSC members should be voted out of office; the state legislature should re-establish an office to fund the governor’s closed consumer protection office; and the legislature should set up the monitoring committee.

For its part, Southern Co. referred to the Plant Vogtle construction project in its most recent federal securities filing as the subject of “technical and procedural challenges … at federal and state level and additional challenges may arise”. Southern is the parent company of Georgia Power, which in a consortium of other energy companies owns most of the Vogtle plant.

One of the challenges that Southern’s report refers to could be negotiating with partners about who should pay certain cost overruns. On October 29, Georgia Power entered into an agreement with the other property owners to resolve a $ 350 million dispute over COVID-related costs under Southern’s Form 10-Q dated September 30, filed with Federal Securities and Exchange Commission was submitted.

In addition, state utility regulators are required to set $ 576 million in after-tax payments from Georgia Power in the first three quarters of the year. Southern’s report states, “Georgia Power may request the Georgia PSC to assess this rate recovery spending.”

Southern’s report sums up the situation by stating: “The final outcome of these matters cannot be determined at this time.”

Nuclear energy is now at the heart of US energy policy.

The Infrastructure Act, which President Biden signed on November 15, provides for nuclear power plants to help reduce CO2 emissions. The bill provides for the construction of nuclear power plants of various sizes, as well as loans for existing facilities, which will remain in place despite plans by the owners to shut them down due to loss of money.

The draft law provides for urgency. Within 180 days of the President’s signature, the Minister of Energy is to “present a report to Congress describing how the ministry could improve energy resilience and reduce CO2 emissions through the use of microreactors and small modular reactors”. (Starting with section 40321.)

A Nov. 9th Department of Energy statement said the Infrastructure Act “will allocate more than $ 62 billion to the US Department of Energy (DOE) to provide a fairer future of clean energy for the American people.” Nuclear funding is nearly 14 percent of the total, including $ 2.5 billion for advanced nuclear projects.