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Georgia Power in USA has announced that unit 3 of the Vogtle plant has begun commercial operations and is now sending power to the grid reliably. At full capacity, the unit can produce 11,000 megawatts of electricity, which can power as many as 500,000 homes. Power developed by the plant is being used in the states of Georgia, Florida, and Alabama in the United States. This makes it the first commercial civil nuclear reactor that was built from scratch in USA in more than 30 years. The last time a nuclear reactor started delivering energy to the power grid was in October 2016, when the Tennessee Valley Authority began commercial operation of its Watts Bar Unit 2 near Spring City. Prior to that, there hadn’t been a new nuclear reactor turned on since Watts Bar 1 unit in May 1996. Construction of Unit 2 of Watts Bar began in 1972 but that was paused in 1985. Construction did not resume until 2007 and it wasn’t completed until 2016.

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00:00 Georgia Power in USA has announced that Unit 3 of the Vogel plant has begun commercial
00:07 operations and is now sending power to the grid reliably.
00:11 At full capacity, the unit can produce 11,000 megawatts of electricity, which can power
00:16 as many as 500,000 homes.
00:19 Power developed by the plant is being used in the states of Georgia, Florida and Alabama
00:23 in the United States.
00:25 This makes it the first commercial civil nuclear reactor that was built from scratch in USA
00:30 in more than 30 years.
00:33 The last time a nuclear reactor started delivering energy to the power grid was in October 2016
00:38 when the Tennessee Valley Authority began commercial operations of its Watts Bar Unit
00:43 2 near Spring City.
00:45 Prior to that, there had not been a new nuclear reactor turned on since Watts Bar 1 unit in
00:50 May 1996.
00:52 Construction of Unit 2 of Watts Bar began in 1972 but that was paused in 1985.
00:58 Construction did not resume until 2007 and it was not completed until 2016.
01:04 The Vogel plant was conceived in 2008 amidst a lot of interest in nuclear energy.
01:09 It was supposed to be the first of many new reactors built across the country but the
01:14 nuclear renaissance faltered due to safety concerns after the 2011 Fukushima disaster
01:20 in Japan.
01:21 Plunging natural gas prices also played a role in this because it is a competing fuel.
01:26 This meant that eventually work only continued on four reactors.
01:30 Vogel Unit 3 will be followed by Unit 4 which is expected to go online in early 2024.
01:36 US states are looking to nuclear power to cut their use of fossil fuels.
01:41 As states look to transition away from coal, oil and natural gas in efforts to reduce greenhouse
01:46 gas emissions, the widespread belief is that solar, wind and other renewable power sources
01:51 might not be enough.
01:53 The United States is the country with the most nuclear reactors with 92 reactors according
01:58 to the US Department of Energy.
02:00 But the average of these reactors is nearing 40 years which will mean that a majority of
02:05 them will reach the end of their lifespan in the 2030s.
02:09 But nuclear energy has its own set of drawbacks.
02:12 The cost is just one problem with nuclear energy.
02:15 It also comes with many other downsides like the radioactive waste that it produces which
02:19 can remain dangerous for thousands of years after nuclear plants are no longer functioning.
02:25 If solar, wind and other renewable sources cannot keep up with the growing need for power,
02:30 safely managed nuclear plants might be the country's best gamble.
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03:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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