Module milestone for US unit

05 December 2013

Georgia Power's Vogtle 3 project has reached another construction milestone with the installation of the module that will house the AP1000's reactor pressure vessel.

CA-04 module Vogtle 3 (Georgia Power)_460
The CA-04 module is lowered into place in Vogtle 3's containment vessel bottom (Image: Georgia Power)

The 29 tonne CA-04 module is over eight metres tall and 6.4 m in diameter, and required one of the largest cranes in the world - a 171-m lift derrick - to lower it into place.

Construction officially began on Vogtle 3 in March, with the pouring of the concrete basemat for the unit. The containment vessel bottom was installed in June, and the unit's reactor pressure vessel is already on site. The unit is expected to start operation in late 2017.

Four AP1000s are currently under construction in the USA: Vogtle 3 and its sister unit Vogtle 4 in Georgia, and Summer units 2 and 3 in South Carolina.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News