Free Republic

Nuclear power has its pros and cons. Right now, the U.S. seems to be embracing its advantages. Last month, Georgia Power announced that its Vogtle Unit 3 reactor has safely reached 'initial criticality.' “A reactor achieves criticality when the nuclear fission reaction becomes self-sustaining,” the company said in a statement. “Achieving initial criticality is necessary to continue the startup of the Unit in order to generate sufficient heat for the production of electricity.” Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesperson Scott Burnell told CNBC that this marked the first nuclear reactor to achieve initial criticality since May 2016. Georgia Power expects Vogtle Unit...

Georgia Power is making significant progress with the second of two additional nuclear reactors being built at Plant Vogtle even as the first of the new reactors prepares to go into commercial operation. The Atlanta-based utility announced Monday the completion of hot functional testing for Unit 4 at the plant south of Augusta. Unit 4 is projected to begin operations late this year or early in 2024. “The energy and enthusiasm at the Vogtle site, and across our entire company, is high with Unit 3 in the final stages of startup testing and Unit 4 making progress towards safely loading...

On Monday, Georgia Power announced that the Vogtle nuclear reactor Unit 3 has started a nuclear reaction inside the nuclear reactor. Technically, this is called “initial criticality” and is when the nuclear fission process has started splitting atoms, generating heat. Vogtle’s Unit 3 reactor will be fully in service in May or June, Georgia Power said. The last time a nuclear reactor reached the same milestone was almost seven years ago when the Tennessee Valley Authority started splitting atoms at the Watts Bar Unit 2 reactor in Tennessee, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. “This is a truly exciting time...