An update on the fire at the Vogtle plant – and the news of an incident a few days earlier

WAYNESBORO, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – We have new details about the Transformer fire at the Vogtle plant back on August 13th.

According to Georgia Power, a fire broke out outside the nuclear part of the power plant, but was quickly extinguished.

A report by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission states that the equipment affected was the safety-critical 480-volt control transformer.

This supplies power to the cooler of Unit 2 B, which is equipped with technical safety features.

Blocks 1, 3 and 4 were not affected.

Less than a week after the Nuclear Regulatory Authority became aware of the incident, another incident occurred at the power plant.

READ THE LETTER REPORTING THE INCIDENT:

Because of the fire, the Vogtle plant was on alert for more than two hours, a situation that officials said never posed a threat to public safety.

An alarm “means that an event has occurred that could compromise the safety of the facility,” the company said in a statement.

Of the four emergency classifications required by the NRC, an alarm is the penultimate level.

This happened just a few days after an inspection at the factory.

READ THE INSPECTION DOCUMENT:

It has only been weeks since the newest facility in the plant opened – seven years late and way over budget.

Units 1 and 2 of the power plant have been in operation for decades, while units 3 and 4 were only built in recent years.

The two older nuclear reactors were completed in 1987 and 1989. If primary power from the external grid and backup power from a diesel generator fail, the reactors can overheat and melt down. No diesel generator was needed in the incident earlier this month, Georgia Power said.

Vogtle's two newer nuclear reactors are designed to prevent a core meltdown due to a power failure.

All four nuclear reactors on site continued to produce electricity at full capacity, Georgia Power said.

Block 3 began operations about a year ago, and Block 4 went online in April. They are the first new nuclear reactors in the USA in over 30 years.

The total cost of the expansion project, including financing, was reported in December at $31 billion for Georgia Power and three other owners. Add in the $3.7 billion paid by the original contractor, Westinghouse, to back out of construction, and the total comes to nearly $35 billion.

Georgia Power owns 45.7 percent of the reactors. Smaller shares are held by Oglethorpe Power Corp., which supplies electricity to its members' cooperatives, the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and the city of Dalton. Some utilities in Florida and Alabama have also signed contracts to buy Vogtle's power.

All rights reserved.