The US Department of Energy (DOE) has finalised up to US$3.7bn in loan guarantees to continue the construction of two AP1000 units, Vogtle-3 and Vogtle-4, rated 1,117 MW each, at the delayed Vogtle nuclear power project in Georgia (United States). The loan guarantees will be divided between the shareholders of the project: project developer Georgia Power (part of the Southern Company group, 45.7% of the plant) will receive up to US$1.67bn, Oglethorpe Power Corporation (30%) will receive up to US$1.6bn, while the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (22.7%) will receive up to US$415m; the remaining 1.6% stake is held by Dalton Utilities. This decision will raise the federal government’s total in loan guarantees for the Vogtle nuclear project to US$12bn.
The Vogtle nuclear expansion project has been hit by years of delays and costs escalations, with the construction cost now exceeding US$20bn. Construction was initially led by Westinghouse, which filed for bankruptcy in March 2017. However, construction has been moving forward uninterrupted even since then and the units are expected to be commissioned in 2021 and 2022, respectively.