Washington (Platts)--14Feb2013/347 pm EST/2047 GMT

Delays in pouring the concrete for the foundation of nuclear reactors being built in Georgia and South Carolina are being resolved and are not a sign there will be extensive delays in other parts of the project, executives of Westinghouse and South Carolina Electric & Gas said Thursday.

The pouring of the foundation for the first two reactors has been delayed by months, although Stephen Byrne, chief operating officer of SCE&G, told reporters in New York the foundation pour for the first of two new units at the utility's Summer site could happen as soon as early March, pending regulatory approval.

SCE&G and Georgia Power are each building two 1,100-MW Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at sites of existing nuclear units.

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In other global nuclear projects, delays in concrete activities, which are among the first in the construction process, have not presaged further project problems, Byrne said.

"We have a high degree of confidence that when we get by some of these technical issues up front, the project teams will be able to execute and they'll get the construction done," Byrne said.

Work has been under way at the Summer and Vogtle sites for several years. Pouring of the foundation, or basemat, of the nuclear island, where the reactor and related equipment will sit, is considered the start of official construction by the nuclear industry.

The two new Summer units and two at Georgia Power's Vogtle site have been delayed by discrepancies between the design approved by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the construction specifications for the reinforced concrete basemat. Many of the issues relate to interpretations of construction codes that were referenced in the design, said Danny Roderick, CEO of Westinghouse, the reactor designer for the four units.

Byrne and Roderick spoke on the sidelines of a briefing by the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry association, in New York.

The milestone has proved challenging for the companies, having been delayed at least eight times at the Vogtle site since February 2012, a construction monitor for the Georgia Public Service Commission said in a December report.

The design of reinforcing steel bar embedded in the concrete is more complicated than people realize, requiring analysis just as complex as that for reactor piping, Roderick said.

Westinghouse has studied the delays in the foundation pour of the plants, and applied lessons to future work, Roderick said. The US nuclear industry has far more experience in recent decades installing safety-related piping and electrical material than with safety-related concrete on a large scale, Roderick said.

The Summer and Vogtle units are the first new US nuclear units to receive construction authorization in more than 30 years. The first new unit at each site is likely to come online in 2017, with the second to follow a year later.

At the first new Summer unit, modifications to the reinforcing bar are under way and should be completed by the end of February, he said, leaving them ready for pouring concrete. When NRC approves a license amendment covering the changes to the rebar, which SCE&G has requested by March 1, the site expects to be ready for the concrete pour.

The schedule at Vogtle is similar, Roderick said.

At all four units, the pour is scheduled to last 48 hours, a continuous pour of the six-foot-thick foundation slab. Workers have been training using mock rebar sections for the pour, Roderick said.

Because of the use of modular construction techniques, which means many portions of plant buildings are already being assembled, and the metal containment structure that will house the reactor itself is partially built, Roderick said. That has the potential to speed progress once the foundation is poured, he said.

--William Freebairn, william_freebairn@platts.com
--Edited by Carla Bass, carla_bass@platts.com

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