On Thursday, the Georgia Public Service Commission heard testimony from staff on the nuclearPlant Vogtle expansion, including significant delays and numerous quality issues with the construction.
The hearing was in relation to the 24 Vogtle Construction Monitoring report on Unit 3 and 4 at the plant, which have beensignificantly delayed and come in over budget. Commissioners and other interested parties were able to ask follow-up questions based on testimony submitted by staff earlier this month.
Kurt Ebersbach, representing Georgia Interfaith Power & Light along with Southern Equity, asked staff a series of questions about thedelay in the start of hot functional testing at Unit 3, which is expected to come online before Unit 4. The HFTmakessure all systems can run at the temperatures they will operate at before fuel is loaded into the reactor.
HFT involves bringing the plant slowly up to the operational temperature of 557 degrees Fahrenheitfor the primary coolant. The bulk of the testing takes place once the system reaches that temperature.
"The original plan for HFT was to hit 557 degrees on day 15 of HFT," said William R. Jacobs, the commission's independent construction monitor for the project."As of this morning, they are gradually increasing temperature from the 450 degree plateau and hope to be at the 557 degrees by early afternoon, and this is day … 61."
Jacobs latertestified that he had overseen HFT on another plant that was completed in 22 days.
More:With Plant Vogtle nearer to completion, Georgia Power seeks to recoup capital costs
Another staffer,Steven D. Roetger, lead analyst for the Public Interest Advocacy Team, testified that leaks in the spent fuel pool caused by flawed welds were more significant thanthe company initially represented. The company has had to re-do almost all of the welds, according to Jacobs.
"Itreally is a bit of a shock to find this extent of issues with a Class 1 safety system," Roetger said. The cost to resolve the issue so far has been about $3.4 million, he said.
Jacobs also testified that cables, which were supposed to be separated so thatissues with one set of cables would not cause damage to others, had been run too close together.
"This is a pretty major deal," Jacobs said,especially becausethe issue was discovered late in the process. "When they began looking they found over 600 cases of cable separation that needed to be corrected."
On Tuesday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced a special inspection related to the cables.
"(The NRC inspection) seems to be getting broader as they find more quality issues," Jacobs said, including testing equipment not being checked properly for calibration.
There were also significant issues with failures of components throughout.
"They've had a very, very highfailure rate of components," Jacobs said – as high as 60 percent during testing. "The testing group will go out to run a pump, stroke a pump, start a fan, and they've found a very high failure rate in the component was not ready to operate when they went out to test it."
Attorney Steven J. Hewitson, representing Georgia Power, asked questions about the scale of issues and delays outlined by staff.
"(Is it) still your view the project should and will be completed?" Hewitson asked.
Jacobs, Roetgers andDonald Grace, vice president of engineering for the Vogtle Monitoring Group, all responded that it is.Grace also acknowledged that the impact of COVID-19 on the construction delays was difficult to untangle from other factors.
"I certainly think that's a matter for further analysis," he said.
Grace said in his written testimony that he does not expect Unit 3 to be completed before June of next year, although Georgia Power maintains it will be operational in the first quarter of 2022.
More:Plant Vogtle now delayed until 2022 as costs mount, Georgia Power says
Tom Newsome, director of utility finance with the Public Service Commission, said during the hearing that each month of delay costs about $25 million.Philip Hayet, vice president atJ. Kennedy and Associates, Inc., testified that it would likely take a delay of more than a year for the project to become uneconomical to complete.
The Vogtle Commission Monitoringreport covers a time period from July 1 to Dec. 31 of last year.The only action that the Public Service Commission will have to take is approvingthe $670 million spent by Georgia Power on the project in that time.
The total expenditure from Georgia Power on the project was about $7.2 billion at the end of last year, just under the $7.3 billion the Public Service Commission has approved. The next $700 million spent on the plant Georgia Power agrees to pass on to shareholders, not ratepayers, and so will not be seeking approval from the Public Service Commission for it.
