Georgia Power recently announced that crews working at the Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion project near Waynesboro, Ga., reached another milestone when they placed the integrated head package (IHP) for Vogtle Unit 3 atop the reactor vessel. 

In February, Georgia Power reported that workers at the Vogtle 3 and 4 project completed the final concrete placement inside the Unit 3 containment vessel, which houses the unit’s reactor.

Georgia Power’s Sept. 26 gamble to accept demands from Oglethorpe Power Corp. to assume more contractual risk and continue the Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion—now estimated at $27 billion—matches the utility’s earlier assessment that contractors can deliver the long-delayed project on the current schedule.

Peak construction at the first new U.S. nuclear plant in 30 years will happen later this year, and the project will need 8,500 workers on site.

Plant Vogtle’s new nuclear units may become operational considerably ahead of the schedule that Georgia Power announced last fall when Bechtel officially took over the beleaguered project.