Georgia Power announced that Unit 4 of its Vogtle nuclear expansion project had reached a new benchmark in their path to producing electric power for state residents.
According to the announcement, the Waynesboro, Ga. project has safely reached initial criticality, which the company said was key to the startup testing sequence and demonstrates that plant operators were able to safely start nuclear reactions in the second reactor, a step before the nuclear fission reaction becomes self-sustaining.
“A reactor achieves criticality when the nuclear fission reaction becomes self-sustaining. Achieving initial criticality is necessary to continue the startup of the unit in order to generate sufficient heat for the production of electricity. Vogtle Unit 4 continues with startup testing, which demonstrates the integrated operation of the primary coolant system and steam supply system at design temperature and pressure with fuel inside the reactor,” Georgia Power said in a statement.
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