American electricity utility Georgia Power on Monday announced that the first new nuclear power plant (NPP) built in the US in 30 years, Vogtle 3, had started commercial operation and was supplying electricity to consumers in the US State of Georgia. Vogtle 3 is a Westinghouse AP1000 pressurised water reactor. (Georgia Power is a subsidiary of the Southern Company, a group which holds a number of electricity and gas utilities across the southern US.) Vogtle 3 will have an operational life that will extend late into, and perhaps even to the end of, this century. At any given time, it be able to power approximately 500 000 homes and businesses.
