Q&A on the News

Q: How will the recent Westinghouse Electric Co. bankruptcy filing impact work already under construction at Georgia’s Plant Vogtle?

—Scott MacLean, Forest Park

A: The short answer is nobody really knows yet. The project has two reactors that are under construction, Units 3 and 4. Work on Unit 3 is about a year farther along than work on Unit 4, according to Georgia Power, but the deadline for finishing work on both was recently set at the end of 2020 under a settlement between the company and the Georgia Public Service Commission.

Georgia Power says the work is about half completed but critics cite other estimates that only about a third of the work is completed. Overall, the project is over three years behind schedule and more than $3 billion over budget.

Last week, a Georgia Power official told the PSC that it will re-evaluate what

to do with the project in light of Westinghouse’s bankruptcy. There are a number of options they will look at, including continuing work on the projects, possibly under Georgia Power’s management. The official said Georgia Power also will consider abandoning work on one unit or abandoning work on both units.

The Georgia Power official said the company also will look at switching gears on the Vogtle project and building natural gas-fired power plants at the Vogtle site instead of one or both reactors. They can probably use the already-built cooling towers, but a lot of the construction, turbines, etc., likely couldn’t be used in a natural gas-fired plant.