The final major lifts inside the containment vessels for Georgia Power's Vogtle 3 & 4 project were completed in late March with placement of the 1.5 million pound Unit 4 containment vessel top head.

The containment vessel houses critical plant components. Its top head is 130 ft in diameter, 37 ft tall, and is comprised of 58 plates, welded together, each more than 1.5 in thick.

The construction milestone comes around a year after the Unit 3 containment vessel top was lifted into place.

The new generating units will include two Westinghouse AP1000 (Advanced Passive) nuclear units, each with a nameplate capacity of 1,117 megawatts. Credit: Southern CompanyThe Vogtle Electric Generating Plant is in eastern Georgia and is jointly owned by Georgia Power (45.7%), Oglethorpe Power Corp. (30%), Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (22.7%) and Dalton Utilities (1.6%).

The new generating units will include two Westinghouse AP1000 (Advanced Passive) nuclear units, each with a nameplate capacity of 1,117 megawatts.

Before performing the top head lift, workers installed a 300 ton polar crane inside the Unit 4 containment vessel. Once the unit enters commercial service, the polar crane will be used during refueling outages to disassemble the reactor vessel and remove the reactor vessel's integrated head package.

The polar crane has been turned over to the project's Initial Test Program, and it will endure a number of tests over the next month to help ensure design requirements have been met and that all crane functions are operational. After testing, the crane will be used to help with construction activities to place components inside the reactor vessel.

The Vogtle 3 & 4 construction project is now around 84% complete.

In late 2017, Georgia Power received unanimous approval from the Georgia Public Service Commission to complete the nuclear project.

The decision was based on the results of a schedule, cost-to-complete and cancellation assessment prompted by the 2017 bankruptcy of former primary Vogtle contractor Westinghouse and the subsequent rejection of a fixed-price contract.

Southern Nuclear is project manager at the site with Bechtel managing daily construction efforts.