Muffin1611
Banned
COLUMBIA, S.C. (Reuters) - South Carolina utilities said on Monday they are abandoning two unfinished reactors
that were once hailed as the start of a U.S. nuclear power renaissance before they were dogged by billions of dollars in cost overruns.
A unit of SCANA Corp and state-owned Santee Cooper said on Monday they would abandon the twin-reactor project known as V.C. Summer.
It is less than 40 percent complete, and more than $9 billion had been spent on construction.
The project was expected to begin producing power last year but has been plagued by construction problems,
disputes with regulators and poor quality work.
The utilities blamed the bankruptcy of project's contractor, Toshiba Corp's Westinghouse Electric Co,
which said in March it could not afford to finish the fixed-price contract for V.C. Summer or a similar project in Georgia known as Vogtle.
A presentation to the Santee Cooper board showed that in the wake of Westinghouse's bankruptcy the project would likely not be completed before 2023
and would go 75 percent over the initial budget, to as much as $24 billion.
"The collapse of the Summer project should be a cautionary tale,"
said Edwin Lyman, a senior scientist with the Global Security Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists in Washington.
He said new designs will still require billions of dollars to ensure they meet strict safety standards.
"Unless the nuclear industry acknowledges that there are no shortcuts to development of new nuclear power technology,
it will be doomed to repeat this failure," he said.
More at the link.