Skip to main content

Building Up Vogtle 3 and 4

Georgia Power created this time lapse footage of Vogtle 3 and 4 construction (perhaps in ancient Rome based on the title treatment).



Very nice. But just for fun - and because this video reminded me of it - here is a 1901 film informally called Building Up and Demolishing the Star Theater. The demolishing is in time lapse forward motion and the building up is the same in reverse motion. it was produced and directed by F.S. Armitage for the American Biograph Co., later home to D.W. Griffith, and became part of the National Film Registry in 2002. As far as anyone has determined, it is the first film made entirely of stop motion footage. That makes Georgia Power's film the scion of an exceptionally long legacy.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I know it's not the politically correct thing for a pro-nuclear advocate to say, but it's just pain pathetic how slow nuclear construction in the US is. I also follow the Oil and Gas Industry, and the Sabine Pass LNG plant is as big a project as Vogtle just recently started. They have seemingly done as much construction there in the last three months as Vogtle has in three years. It takes the patience of a saint to watch nuclear construction because it's about as exciting as watching grass grow. It's not that the plants are any bigger or more complex, it's jsut the absurd level of regulation that kill the industry in this country. Vogtle basically sat on its ass for a year over concrete issues that in any other industry would have been resolved in a few days. Given the current state of the NRC I can't see where new nuclear construction can ever be cost competitive. The old plants which have been running for 40+ years have worked fine without these sort of absurd requirements during construction and so has all the other infrastructure in this country. The NRCs regulatory scheme "can't see the forest for the trees" as they cosntantly nitpick inane details while at the same time failing to regulate large safety lapses so long as those lapses lie outside of their somewhat arbitrarily picked designed basis accidents and risk analyses that only consider the "known unknowns" and never the "unknown unknowns".

Popular posts from this blog

Activists' Claims Distort Facts about Advanced Reactor Design

Below is from our rapid response team . Yesterday, regional anti-nuclear organizations asked federal nuclear energy regulators to launch an investigation into what it claims are “newly identified flaws” in Westinghouse’s advanced reactor design, the AP1000. During a teleconference releasing a report on the subject, participants urged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to suspend license reviews of proposed AP1000 reactors. In its news release, even the groups making these allegations provide conflicting information on its findings. In one instance, the groups cite “dozens of corrosion holes” at reactor vessels and in another says that eight holes have been documented. In all cases, there is another containment mechanism that would provide a barrier to radiation release. Below, we examine why these claims are unwarranted and why the AP1000 design certification process should continue as designated by the NRC. Myth: In the AP1000 reactor design, the gap between the shield bu...

Wednesday Update

From NEI’s Japan micro-site: NRC, Industry Concur on Many Post-Fukushima Actions Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues • There is a “great deal of alignment” between the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the industry on initial steps to take at America’s nuclear energy facilities in response to the nuclear accident in Japan, Charles Pardee, the chief operating officer of Exelon Generation Co., said at an agency briefing today. The briefing gave stakeholders an opportunity to discuss staff recommendations for near-term actions the agency may take at U.S. facilities. PowerPoint slides from the meeting are on the NRC website. • The International Atomic Energy Agency board has approved a plan that calls for inspectors to evaluate reactor safety at nuclear energy facilities every three years. Governments may opt out of having their country’s facilities inspected. Also approved were plans to maintain a rapid response team of experts ready to assist facility operators recoverin...

Nuclear Utility Moves Up in Credit Ratings, Bank is "Comfortable with Nuclear Strategy"

Some positive signs that nuclear utilities can continue to receive positive ratings even while they finance new nuclear plants for the first time in decades: Wells Fargo upgrades SCANA to Outperform from Market Perform Wells analyst says, "YTD, SCG shares have underperformed the Regulated Electrics (total return +2% vs. +9%). Shares trade at 11.3X our 10E EPS, a modest discount to the peer group median of 11.8X. We view the valuation as attractive given a comparatively constructive regulatory environment and potential for above-average long-term EPS growth prospects ... Comfortable with Nuclear Strategy. SCG plans to participate in the development of two regulated nuclear units at a cost of $6.3B, raising legitimate concerns regarding financing and construction. We have carefully considered the risks and are comfortable with SCG’s strategy based on a highly constructive political & regulatory environment, manageable financing needs stretched out over 10 years, strong partners...