Newspaper Page Text
Vol. 130, No. 23 - Waynesboro, Ga. 30830
Established in 1882
Wednesday, September 15, 2010 - $1.00
A flatbed trailer hauls in one of the massive steel plates that will be part of the unit 3 containment vessel
Components arrive
for new reactors
By Anne Marie Kyzer
annemariek@thetmecitizen.com
A milestone in Plant Vogtle
expansion was marked last week
with the arrival of the first ma
jor components of units 3 and
4.
Massive steel plates were un
loaded Tuesday after being
trucked from the Port of Savan
nah, according to David Jones,
Site Vice President for Vogtle
units 3 and 4.
“This is a major milestone for
Plant Vogtle with these being
the first major nuclear compo
nents to arrive on site,” Jones
said.
Those four plates are the first
of 58 that will be welded to
gether to form the bottom head
of the unit 3 containment ves
sel. They were produced in Ja
pan before their four-week jour
ney by sea to Savannah.
Chicago Bridge and Iron, a
subcontractor of Westinghouse,
will weld the steel plates to
gether. As the five major sec
tions of each vessel are com
pleted, Jones said they will be
set into place by the world’s
largest crane. Once assembled,
the crane will have an extended
boom of 500 feet and be capable
of lifting more than 1,000 tons.
The modules won’t be set into
the power block until Southern
Nuclear crosses its final federal
hurdle, approval of the Com
bined Operating License by the
Nuclear Regulatory Commis
sion. However, Jones said the
COL approval is expected to
come well before the sections
are fully assembled and ready
to place. The COL could be is
sued late next year.
The next reactor components,
steam generators, are not ex
pected to arrive until 2012 or
2013.
Jones said the project contin
ues on schedule, which would
mean units 3 and 4 are expected
to be complete and online by
2016 and 2017, respectively.
VOGTLE HEARING
SCHEDULED FOR OCT. 7
As workers move forward with
preparation at the site, the NRC
is moving ahead with the ap
proval process for Vogtle’s Com
bined Operating License (COL).
The NRC will hold a meeting
in Waynesboro Oct. 7 to discuss
its draft environmental impact
statement. NRC staff issued a
finding that there are no environ
mental impacts that would keep
them from issuing the COL for
units 3 and 4.
The meeting will be held at
Augusta Technical College’s
Waynesboro Campus and begin
with an open house at 6 p.m. The
meeting is scheduled for 7-10
p.m.
The draft statement to be dis
cussed is available at
www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reac-
tors/col/vogtle.html.
SEPT. 17 CONFERENCE
CANCELLED
The NRC Atomic Safety and
Licensing Board canceled a pre-
hearing conference previously
scheduled for Sept. 17 in
Rockville, Md., regarding a re
vived challenge to Southern
Nuclear’s COL application.
The Board said counsel for the
three organizations challenging
the application unexpectedly
withdrew on September 10. The
Board will decide whether to re
schedule the session once the or
ganizations resolve the matter of
their representation before the
Board.
Containment Vessel
aj>iiwu Height: approx 213 ft.
■> .. ID: approx 131 ft.
1
Bottom Head
The diagram above shows the bottom head of the containment vessel, which will be
built using the massive steel plates that are now arriving.
Farm Fest 2010 is Saturday
By Anne Marie Kyzer
annemariek@thetruecitizen.com
This Saturday the Waynesboro
Shrine Club will host its annual
Farm Fest at the Southern Bank
Pavilion on Liberty Street.
The gates open at 9 a.m., and
the parade through downtown
will begin at 11 a.m. with a pro
cession of tractors, agricultural
themed floats and more as the
community pays tribute to its
farmers.
The festival will continue un
til 5 p.m. and feature dozens of
vendors and attractions. Children
may participate in pdeal tractor
races and a pie eating contest
before the parade, and games and
activities are slated through the
afternoon. Entertainment will
include the Jade Tigers at 1 p.m.
followed by Brittany’s Dance
Academy at 1:45.
Plenty of good food will also
be on tap. In addition to food
from vendors, festival goers will
have a chance to taste the best
ribs that area amateur grill mas
ters have to offer.
The annual Racks by the
Tracks cook-off will run in con
junction with Farm Fest and fea
ture about a dozen teams com
peting for the title of best ribs in
Burke County and a share of the
$1,300 purse. Patrons may also
judge for themselves as most
teams offer rib plates for sale.
Organizers are still finalizing
numbers for the cook-off. Any
one interested in participating
should call Jody Ellison at 706-
437-0529.
Police chief
nearly fired
By Elizabeth Billips
lizbillips@yahoo.com
The Waynesboro Police Department’s two highest ranking
officers were one vote from losing their jobs.
At last Tuesday night’s council meeting, vice-mayor Chick
Jones made a motion to immediately terminate Waynesboro
Police Chief Karl E. Allen and eliminate the position held by
Major Mary Bennett.
It went to a 3-3 vote with Herman Brown and Willie Roy
Williams backing his motion and Bill Tinley, Dick Byne and
Portia Washington voting against it.
“You’ve put me in the hot seat,” Mayor George DeLoach
said before casting his tie-breaking vote which saved their
skins.
Before their jobs went on the line, a large neighborhood
watch group submitted a long list of concerns, which were
presented by their spokesperson Alfonzo Williams. Most of
the problems, the group contended, stemmed from lack of
leadership.
“We are asking you to take a vote of no confidence with
leadership in the police department,” Williams said. “And
we’re asking you to do this tonight.”
Williams went on to describe a circus-act of a department
that appeared to be “playing police” with little accountabil
ity, no clear consequences and leaders with their heads in the
sand.
“You’re responsible for what your people do ... you can’t
hide behind ‘I didn’t know,”’ he argued. "The public obvi
ously doesn’t have any confidence in the police department
and somehow that needs to be restored.”
Williams told officials that in 20 years, he’d never seen a
spectacle like the one at investigator Gene Boseman’s public
appeals hearing last month. He said the portrait of the police
department and the widespread misconduct that was revealed
that night was so shocking it had people in Augusta talking.
The group chronicled a series of recent events plaguing the
department, from an Aug. 27 child molestation case that an
officer closed without calling in an investigator to interview
the child or mother to the Aug. 31 arrest of officer Jonathan
Cates for drag racing.
In the latter case, Williams maintained the Chief’s decision
to put the officer on paid leave was a bad one, especially in
light of state trooper’s report that the he’d left the scene of
the accident.
“Eve got to tell if you I were the chief of police and an
officer had an accident and left the scene I’d have two ques
tions - ‘Did you have an accident? And did you leave the
scene for any reason other than to go to the hospital?”’ Wil
liams said. "If both answers were a resounding ‘yes,’ he
wouldn’t be working for me. Period.”
Chief Allen, who said little during the meeting, contended
he had fired an officer (Boseman) when he stepped out of
line but that city council chose to rehire him.
Council member Portia Washington stuck up for the chief
before casting her vote to keep him on board. “The chief is
not responsible for the actions of other officers,” she said,
explaining a plan she hatched to house all department heads
in a separate “executive office” which would separate them
- See Chief, page 12
The Motion:
To immediately terminate Police Chief Karl E. Allen and
eliminate the position held by Major Mary Bennett
Yes:
Tiebreaking Vote: No
18122
04420
DeLoach