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Utility, contractor in tiff over reactor construction
Nuclear plant addition may not start until 2017
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ATLANTA — Contractors building a new nuclear plant in eastern Georgia have indicated the first reactor may be further delayed, potentially pushing back the start of its commercial operation into early to mid-2017, a Southern Co. executive said Tuesday.

The utility has not agreed to that timeline and maintains that contractors can still speed up the construction of two new reactors at Plant Vogtle near Augusta, said David McKinney, the utility's vice president of nuclear construction support for the new plant. Construction delays have the potential to increase the utility's costs, which are ultimately paid by the roughly 2.4 million customers of Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power.

"We don't agree with those dates," McKinney said under cross-examination during a hearing before state utility regulators. "We believe there is potential for great improvement."

The project schedule has slid, initially because it took longer than expected for Southern Co. to secure permission from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build the first in a new generation of nuclear power plants.

The first of the new reactors at Plant Vogtle was originally slated to produce commercial power starting on April 1, 2016, with the second reactor following a year later. In August, the utility publicly acknowledged those dates were unrealistic. Instead, it aimed for getting the first reactor operational no earlier than November 2016, with the second coming online the following year. The timeline that McKinney discussed would add months onto those projections, although the utility has not agreed to them.

"The November 2016 and November 2017 dates we believe are probably theoretically achievable — it would take significant compression to achieve them," McKinney said.

Southern Co. owns a roughly 46 percent stake in the new reactors. The other owners include Oglethorpe Power Corp., the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and the city of Dalton. The project is under cost pressure. Georgia's Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities, allowed Southern Co. to spend up to $6.1 billion as its share of the estimated $14 billion project. The company now projects its cost will reach $6.2 billion, though it has not formally asked regulators to raise the spending limit.

The utility and the project contractors — The Shaw Group and Westinghouse Electric Corp. — are locked in a legal dispute over who is responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars in unanticipated project costs. The contractors want Southern Co. to pay about $425 million as its share of costs related largely to license delays. Southern Co. says it is not responsible for those costs.

Utility officials have said that completing the nuclear plant remains cheaper than building the next-best alternative, a gas-fired power plant. Company executives have also said potential cost increases could be offset by benefits such as federal tax credits or government loan guarantees to help finance the project. While utility executives said Tuesday they expect to get the tax credits, negotiations are ongoing over the loan guarantees.

Several protesters urged the Public Service Commission to reject the project, largely because they view nuclear power as unsafe.

"They don't know what to do with the waste," said Scout Kilbourne of Mableton.

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Record April boosts Savannah's container trade at port
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The Port of Savannah moved 356,700 20-foot equivalent container units in April, an increase of 7.1 percent. - photo by Provided

The Georgia Ports Authority's busiest April ever pushed its fiscal year-to-date totals to more than 3.4 million 20-foot equivalent container units (TEUs), an increase of 8.8 percent, or 280,000 TEUs, compared to the first 10 months of fiscal 2017.

"We're on track to move more than 300,000 TEUs in every month of the fiscal year, which will be a first for the authority," said GPA Executive Director Griff Lynch. "We're also anticipating this to be the first fiscal year for the Port of Savannah to handle more than 4 million TEUs."

April volumes reached 356,700 20-foot equivalent container units, up 7.1 percent or 23,700 units. As the fastest growing containerport in the nation, the Port of Savannah has achieved a compound annual growth rate of more than 5 percent a year over the past decade.

"As reported in the recent economic impact study by UGA's Terry College of Business, trade through Georgia's deepwater ports translates into jobs, higher incomes and greater productivity," said GPA Board Chairman Jimmy Allgood. "In every region of Georgia, employers rely on the ports of Savannah and Brunswick to help them become more competitive on the global stage."

To strengthen the Port of Savannah's ability to support the state's future economic growth, the GPA Board approved $66 million in terminal upgrades, including $24 million for the purchase of 10 additional rubber-tired gantry cranes.  

"The authority is committed to building additional capacity ahead of demand to ensure the Port of Savannah remains a trusted link in the supply chain serving Georgia and the Southeast," Lynch said.

The crane purchase will bring the fleet at Garden City Terminal to 156 RTGs. The new cranes will support three new container rows, which the board approved in March. The additional container rows will increase annual capacity at the Port of Savannah by 150,000 TEUs.

The RTGs will work over stacks that are five containers high and six deep, with a truck lane running alongside the stacks. Capable of running on electricity, the cranes will have a lift capacity of 50 metric tons.

The cranes will arrive in two batches of five in the first and second quarters of calendar year 2019.

 Also at Monday's meeting, the GPA Board elected its officers, with Jimmy Allgood as chairman, Will McKnight taking the position of vice chairman and Joel Wooten elected as the next secretary/treasurer.

For more information, visit gaports.com, or contact GPA Senior Director of Corporate Communications Robert Morris at (912) 964-3855 or rmorris@gaports.com.

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