WAYNESBORO, GEORGIA – History in the making is happening at Plant Vogtle. As construction of Vogtle Units 3 and 4 continues, the nuclear power plant will set the standard for nuclear energy in America.

WJBF News Channel 6’s Stefany Bornman reports on the updates of the construction.

Construction Vice President of Vogtle 3 and 4, Mark Rauckhorst gave our crew a tour of the 800 acre construction site for the two newest additions. Unit 3 and Unit 4 will make Plant Vogtle the first four-unit Nuclear Power Plant in America.

Modules are shipped and later assembled on site in an enclosed building. Welding the, nearly five-story tall, units together protects them from the elements before they are moved by a custom crane and placed inside the containment vessels. Despite delays Rauckhorst says the project is more than half way done, with Unit 3 being closer to completion than Unit 4.

“So the reason we have got a one-year time lag between the two units is so that we can learn from the construction on Unit 3 and apply those lessons learned to the construction on Unit 4,” said the Construction Vice President.

Next Rauckhorst took our crew through Vogtle 3. It’s easy to see one of three steel rings that are part of the containment vessel, that when completed will be in the shape of a cylinder shape, unlike the original two containment structures.

“Our focus has always been on safety and quality first because these are assets that are going to be here for generations. We need to do it right,” Rauckhorst told WJBF News Channel 6.

Rauckhorst tell WJBF News Channel 6 that between the four units a central campus will be built for workers. Once the final reactor vessel is put in place all the units together will generate enough electricity to power one million Georgia homes and businesses.”We need all of the energy sources that are available to us. We need solar, we need wind, and we absolutely need nuclear,” he said.

The current cost of the project is $5.045 billion with $2.408 billion in financing cost, bringing the total to approximately $7.4 billion. Unit 3 is scheduled to go into service on June 2019 and Unit 4 will begin service in June of 2020.