In The News

U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry will visit and speak at Plant Vogtle in Georgia on Friday, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

U.S. Rep. Rick Allen, a Georgia Republican, on Thursday morning confirmed Perry's trip during an interview with the Aiken Standard.

Perry will be accompanied by a breadth of dignitaries and energy executives including Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, according to an advisory issued by the DOE.

The Vogtle nuclear power plant is across the river from Aiken County; it is located southeast of Augusta.

Two nuclear facilities at Vogtle are, and have been, up and running. Another pair of reactors – Units 3 and 4 – is currently being built. The expansion at Vogtle is the only project of its kind in the nation.

The buildout of the V.C. Summer plant in South Carolina, a similar project, was abandoned in 2017. 

Perry will not be visiting the Savannah River Site during his southern sojourn, according to the DOE. Perry visited SRS last February.

The energy secretary – the former governor of Texas – has said he wants to make nuclear "cool" again.

Allen on Thursday said Vogtle and SRS together represent a stream of "huge intellectual capital" in the Aiken-Augusta region.

Vogtle is owned by Georgia Power, Oglethorpe Power Corporation, Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and Dalton Utilities.