Plant Vogtle near Waynesboro, Georgia remains a centerpiece of the U.S. nuclear fleet, with its two newest units feeding carbon-free power into the Southeastern grid. Unit 3, a Westinghouse AP1000 pressurized water reactor, delivers about 1,100 megawatts of net electric output, enough to serve hundreds of thousands of Georgia homes, and Unit 4 reached commercial operation the following year.
The expansion made Vogtle the largest generator of clean electricity in the United States once all four units were running. Georgia Power, part of Southern Company, operates the plant alongside co-owners, and the site now anchors the state generation mix as demand across the region climbs.
The completion came at a steep price. Georgia Power has acknowledged that building Units 3 and 4 ran well over the original budget and schedule, with total project costs climbing into the tens of billions of dollars. That experience has shaped the national conversation about how to build large reactors more predictably, and it is part of why federal programs are now backing smaller, factory-built designs intended to reduce construction risk.
For Georgia, the operating units provide a large block of baseload capacity that runs day and night regardless of weather. As metro Atlanta absorbs new data center load and manufacturing investment, Vogtle output helps offset the added demand. State regulators continue to review how the plant costs are recovered through customer rates, a process that will play out over the plant multi-decade operating life.
Source: Georgia Power - https://www.georgiapower.com/news-hub/press-releases/50-years-clean-reliable-nuclear-energy.html