Twenty Georgia legislators say they’re worried about the rising costs of the Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion. That’s as a couple of important votes are coming up for the only nuclear power construction project in the nation.
The two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle, which is near Augusta, were supposed to be up and running by now, but construction has fallen years behind schedule and has increased by billions of dollars. Last month, Georgia Power, which is the biggest owner of the project, announced that the price had gone up again, by $2.3 billion.
That announcement triggers votes by other owners of the Vogtle expansion, Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and Oglethorpe Power Corp., because while Georgia Power says it will pass the additional costs on to its shareholders rather than its customers, the other utilities don’t have shareholders to absorb the increase, so their customers would have to take it on. Those votes will happen by next week.
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