January 28, 2019 By South Carolina Radio Network
The Santee Cooper board Monday voted to give up the federal license for the failed nuclear expansion project at the VC Summer plant in Fairfield County.
The state-owned utility’s board unanimously voted to work with partner on the project SCE&G’s efforts to give up the federal license to build two nuclear reactors. The State newspaper reports that the move most likely means that the project will never be finished.
Santee Cooper will work to sell or scrap the nuclear parts and equipment left behind after Santee Cooper and SCE&G stopped construction on the troubled the project in late July 2017.
For more than a year Santee Cooper searched for a company interested in finishing the project but could not find any takers the utility’s board said Monday.
To keep the license, Santee Cooper would need to spend millions of dollars to show the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that the utility has the ability to finish and operate the unfinished plant.
Since SCE&G and its new owner, Dominion Energy, have surrendered all claims to the failed project, Santee Cooper will get to keep all of the money from the sale of any usable equipment.
