Secretary of Energy Rick Perry on March 22 announced that the Department of Energy reached financial close for up to $3.7 billion in additional guarantees of loans to finance the continued construction of Vogtle Units 3 and 4 in Georgia.
The new units, which will be the nation's first new nuclear units in 30 years, will be co-owned by Georgia Power, Oglethorpe Power, MEAG Power and Dalton Utilities.
Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4 consist of two 1,100 megawatt nuclear reactors being constructed in Burke County, Georgia. The two new nuclear reactors at Vogtle will supplement the two existing reactor units at the site.
The DOE issued guarantees of loans for the following Vogtle owners: up to $1.67 billion to Georgia Power Company; up to $1.6 billion to Oglethorpe Power; and up to $415 million to three subsidiaries of MEAG Power.
The announcement was made as Perry visited the Plant Vogtle site on March 22. MEAG Power noted that Perry’s visit to close the loan guarantees for MEAG Power, Oglethorpe Power, and Georgia Power coincided with an important milestone in the construction of the project, placement of the top head of the containment structure for Vogtle Unit 3.
The DOE had previously announced conditional commitments for the additional $3.7 billion in loan guarantees in September 2017.
The DOE will now guarantee a total of up to $12 billion in loans for the project, including existing guarantees of up to $8.3 billion in loans to Georgia Power, Oglethorpe Power and the MEAG Power subsidiaries provided in 2014 and 2015.
In late 2018, all four of the Vogtle 3 & 4 project co-owners voted to continue construction of the two new nuclear units.
