BREAKING: Santee Cooper, SCANA abandon Summer nuclear plant construction [View all]

[kristopher]

BREAKING: Santee Cooper, SCANA abandon Summer nuclear plant construction
AUTHOR Gavin Bade

July 31, 2017

Dive Brief:

- Santee Cooper and SCANA Corp. will abandon efforts to build two new nuclear reactors at the Summer plant in South Carolina, the utilities announced on Tuesday.

- The board of Santee Cooper, which owns 45% of the project, voted unanimously on Monday to halt construction, citing costs officials said could reach over $25 billion. SCANA Corp., which owns 55%, said in a statement it will immediately file plans with regulators to cease construction as well.

- The decisions follow a commitment last week from Toshiba to contribute $2.2 billion toward the plant's completion. Problems with the reactor supplied by Toshiba subsidiary Westinghouse caused long delays and cost overruns at the Summer plant and the Vogtle nuclear project in Georgia, which also faces possible cancellation.

Dive Insight:

SCANA and Santee Cooper's decision to end construction on the Summer nuclear plant ends months of discussion at the two utilities on whether to forge ahead with the over-budget and behind-schedule nuclear project.

Last week, Cooper and SCANA subsidiary SCE&G accepted a $2.2 billion commitment from Toshiba to...

http://www.utilitydive.com/news/breaking-santee-cooper-scana-abandon-summer-nuclear-plant-construction/448262/