Utilities begin loading radioactive fuel into a second new reactor at Georgia nuclear plant

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Workers have begun loading radioactive fuel into a second new nuclear reactor in Georgia

ATLANTA — Workers have begun loading radioactive fuel into a second new nuclear reactor in Georgia, utilities said Thursday, putting the reactor on a path to begin generating electricity in the coming months.

Georgia Power Co. says workers will transfer 157 fuel assemblies into the reactor core at Plant Vogtle, southeast of Augusta, in the next few days. There are already three reactors operating at the plant. Two reactors have been operating for decades, while the third reactor entered commercial operation on July 31, becoming the first new nuclear unit built from scratch in the United States in decades.

It's a key step toward completing the two-reactor project, which is seven years late and $17 billion over budget.

Once fuel is loaded, operators will conduct tests and begin splitting atoms, which creates the high temperatures that boil steam that drives turbines, which generates electricity. The company says unit 4 is supposed to reach commercial operation by March 2024.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission ruled Unit 4 was ready for fuel in July.

In Georgia, almost every electric customer will pay for Vogtle. Georgia Power, the largest unit of Atlanta-based Southern Co., currently owns 45.7% of the reactors. Smaller shares are owned by Oglethorpe Power Corp., which provides electricity to member-owned cooperatives, the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and the city of Dalton. Some Florida and Alabama utilities have also contracted to buy Vogtle’s power.

Currently, the owners are projected to pay $31 billion in capital and financing costs, Associated Press calculations show. Add in $3.7 billion that original contractor