Georgia’s biggest economic development project gets a jolt

The biggest economic development project in Georgia isn’t the deepening of Savannah’s port, or the two new stadiums in the works. It’s the expansion of Georgia’s Vogtle nuclear power plant project near Augusta, which will cost more than $14 billion.

The federal government last week signed the dotted line on $6.5 billion in loan subsidies to build two new nuclear reactors at the plant, a major milestone that was four years in the making. Georgia Power, the project manager for the utilities building the reactor, said the reactors are well on the way to completion.

But the utilities face daunting challenges ahead. The completion is more than a year behind schedule, mired in multiple lawsuits, and hundreds of millions of dollars over budget.