Next Vogtle hearings to begin

The next stage of Georgia Public Service Commission hearings on the Vogtle nuclear power plant construction project will begin on 11 December, in which the PSC will hear from public witnesses. It will also conduct a hearing on the testimony of its public interest advocacy staff who have recommended the project should only proceed if Georgia Power, rather than its customers, bear the risk for costs that the PSC deems to be unreasonable.

The next stage of Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) hearings on the Vogtle nuclear power plant construction project will begin on 11 December, in which the PSC will hear from public witnesses. It will also conduct a hearing on the testimony of its public interest advocacy staff who have recommended the project should only proceed if Georgia Power, rather than its customers, bear the risk for costs that the PSC deems to be unreasonable.

Work continues at Vogtle (Image: Georgia Power)

The hearings on Georgia Power's 16th Plant Construction Monitoring (VCM) report will take place in Atlanta, Georgia, and will continue as needed until 14 December. They follow hearings held in November, when Georgia Power CEO Paul Bowers said the owners of Vogtle 3 and 4 - Georgia Power, Oglethorpe Power, MEAG Power and Dalton Utilities - were unified in their recommendation to move forward with the project, which was filed in August. The recommendation was reached after a schedule, cost-to-complete and cancellation assessment was undertaken following contractor Westinghouse's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in March.

The PSC said yesterday that Georgia Power has asked it to consider two recommendations, the first one being to proceed with the project provided that the PSC agrees with certain conditions in the company's filing. The second, alternative, recommendation is to cancel the project should the PSC not adopt all the conditions for proceeding.

The PSC's public interest advocacy staff is responsible for representing the interests of ratepayers in the proceedings. In testimony filed on 1 December, it questioned the costs and economics of the project.

"Rather than approving the Company's request, Staff recommends the Project go forward only if the Commission modifies the Company's proposed conditions to: 1) ensure that completion is economic compared to cancellation, 2) provide an appropriate allocation of risks and costs between the Company and its customers, and 3) determine now that the costs identified as unreasonable by Staff be borne by the Company and its shareholders, or at the least ensure that unreasonable costs are not prematurely approved without an in-depth review of the prudence and reasonableness of actual costs after they are incurred," it said.

Under Georgia law, the PSC must within 180 days from the filing of the VCM verify and approve or disapprove expenditures made on the project, and approve or disapprove proposed revisions to forecast costs, schedules and configurations. After staff and intervenors present their testimony in the 11-14 December hearings, Georgia Power is scheduled to file its rebuttal testimony by 29 December and present that testimony on 8-10 January. According to the PSC's current schedule, it will issue its decision on 6 February, which is ahead of the statutory deadline of 27 February.

Work continues on the two AP1000 reactors under construction at the Vogtle site near Waynesboro, Georgia, with Bechtel managing daily construction efforts under the direction of Southern Nuclear. Vogtle unit 3 is currently expected to start commercial operation in November 2021 and unit 4 in November 2022.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News