The first US commercial nuclear power plant built from scratch since the 1979 nuclear accident at Three Mile Island has been put online as the Unit 3 reactor of Tennessee’s Plant Vogtle joins the power grid, the Associated Press reports.
Vogtle Unit 3 began construction in 2009 and was expected to be online by 2016, but environmental concerns after the 2011 Fukushima disaster, one-time owner Westinghouse’s bankruptcy, construction problems and new regulatory issues pushed the initiation date back. Dozens of nuclear plants that began construction prior to the 1979 TMI meltdown have been brought online, but construction of new nuclear plants was halted until the Vogtle expansion was proposed in 2006.
The unit will generate 1,100 megawatts of electricity, enough to power half a million homes. Georgia Power Co. now gets 25% of its electricity from nuclear power, a key component in the fight against climate change by reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. And that percentage will increase: Vogtle Unit 4 has been authorized to be fueled up and is expected to enter service in March 2024.