Several key milestones at the Vogtle nuclear expansion have been completed

The placement of the middle containment vessel ring for Unit 4. The containment ring is part of the structure that houses the reactor vessel. Weighing more than a jumbo jet, the 2.4 million-pound, 51-foot tall containment vessel ring consists of dozens of individual steel plates and was fabricated on site. The middle ring is the second of three containment vessel rings to be set for Unit 4.

Crews completed more than 930 cubic yards of concrete inside the Unit 3 shield building. That structure is now more than 80 percent complete for the protective barrier which surrounds the Unit 3 containment vessel.

Workers successfully set the fourth and final core make-up tank for the project. Placed inside the Unit 4 containment vessel, the 330,000-pound, stainless-steel tank is part of the safety core cooling system to keep the reactor vessel cool using gravity and natural water circulation.

The final section of the steel floor that sits atop the in-containment refueling water storage tank (IRWST) has been set inside the Unit 4 containment vessel. The IRWST contains more than 500,000 gallons of borated water and provides heat removal from the reactor without operator action.

The Vogtle 3&4 workforce has continued to grow, more than 400 craft workers joined the project in June.  It brings the total workforce on site to about 8,000 people.