On Friday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced it
has found the construction of two new Westinghouse AP 1000 reactors at Georgia’s
Vogtle nuclear power plant will have no environmental impacts that preclude the
project from going forward.
The agency’s issuance of a final EIS is a crucial step in
Southern Nuclear Operating Company’s license applications for the reactors,
which it submitted in 2008. The company, a subsidiary of Southern Co.,
currently operates two roughly 1,100 megawatt Westinghouse pressurized water
reactors at the Vogtle site 26 miles southeast of Augusta, Ga., according to
the NRC.
Next steps in the new reactors’ licensing include an
NRC final safety evaluation report, a review by the agency’s Advisory Committee
on Reactor Safeguards and a final vote by the commission itself.