We've Got THE POWER

In an odd and not predicted (by us, anyway) turn of events, Georgia has a newly active nuclear reactor. No, we are not referring to the country of Georgia, but the U.S. state of Georgia.

On Monday, March 7th, 2023, Georgia Power of the state of Georgia in the U.S. successfully started a nuclear reaction inside of a nuclear reactor located in Burke County, Georgia. The stage that the nuclear reaction is in is called initial criticality and it is when the nuclear fission process has started splitting atoms. One of the major byproducts of this reaction is the generation of heat, which is why the cooling components of a nuclear reactor and monitoring of the reaction are so important. The nuclear reactor will likely be fully in service in May or June of this year according to Georgia Power.

Interestingly enough, the last time a nuclear reactor reached the same milestone was about 7 years ago when the TVA started splitting atoms at a nuclear reactor in Tennessee per the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Who is Georgia Power, you may be wondering? Georgia Power is a Georgia based power company. Georgia Power was founded in 1902 as Georgia Railway and Power Company and is currently the largest of four electric utility companies owned by Southern Company. Georgia Power services more than 2.6 million customers (with around 2.3 million of those customers being residential) in 155 counties in Georgia according to their website. Not all of the power provided by Georgia Power is sourced from nuclear energy and is instead a mix of traditional and renewable energy sources with the largest source being gas/oil with the second largest source being nuclear energy.

What is the significance of having a nuclear reactor? Nuclear power, of course. A typical nuclear power station uses heat from the nuclear reactor to generate steam that then drives a steam turbine connected to a generator that produces electricity. The advantage to nuclear power is that the operations, maintenance, and fuel costs are on the lower end of the cost spectrum when compared to traditional power sources. This of course, is not including how much it costs to properly build a nuclear power plant, which can typically span from 5 to 10 years and tends to be pretty expensive. We emphasize "properly built", because a poorly constructed nuclear power plant can result in catastrophic issues. Don't believe us? Do some research on Chernobyl and the impact the accident at the nuclear power plant had on the surrounding area at the time up until now. Another advantage is that nuclear power plants have a smaller carbon footprint that is often comparable to that of renewable energy sources like solar farms and wind farms.

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