Georgia Power said Tuesday that the latest construction milestone at the Vogtle Unit 3 and 4 site near Waynesboro, Ga., had been reached with the placement of the 90-ton CA05 building module for Unit 4.
The module, built on site, is nearly 27-feet high and weighs 180,000 pounds. It was placed inside the Unit 4 containment building.
The CA05 module is comprised of eight reinforced steel plates, which are welded together and will be filled with concrete to provide structural support for the containment building. The module also provides for various room separations that help organize the operations of the power plant.
Other recent milestones completed at the construction site include placement of the KB04 module ion the Unit 4 auxiliary building. KB04, which is designed to process and discharge waste gas, is the first mechanical module to be installed in the Unit 4 nuclear island, the company said.
In addition, workers have completed the placement of 230 cubic yards of concrete within the Unit 3 nuclear island, which prepares it for the next round of shield building panel installation.
The CA05 module was placed in the Unit 4 nuclear island on June 24 by a heavy-lift derrick, a specially designed 560-feet high crane that is one of the largest in the world.
Two modules for Unit 3 – CA03 and CA02 – were set in place in late May, weighing 470,000 pounds and 104,000 pounds, respectively. They are part of the in-containment refueling water storage tank in the Unit 3 containment building. The storage tank will hold more than 500,000 gallons of borated water and is a design feature of the AP1000 plant's passive safety system that automatically releases water into the containment area to absorb decay heat and keep the reactor core cool and safe in the event of an unplanned shutdown.