There was a big boom in building nuclear power reactors in the U.S. in the 1970s but that faded away and for decades there were no new builds. Then, recently two new projects were announced that the nuclear industry hoped heralded a renaissance for nuclear power expansion in the U.S. Two new reactors were ordered for the VC Summers nuclear plant in South Carolina and two new reactors were ordered for the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia.
In July of this year, the VC Summer reactor project was abandoned before the reactors were completed. The project fell behind schedule as the cost rose far beyond the original estimate. Investigations found that staff running the project were not qualified to properly monitor such a big and complex construction project. It was also found that there were internal reports several years old that detailed serious problems but these reports were suppressed. Last winter, the primary contractor, Westinghouse declared bankruptcy. Different contractors accused each other of being at fault. The state utility commission is still investigating. Arrangements are being made to deal with the debt from the uncompleted project. Ratepayer groups are fighting to escape being charged for the work already done.
Now the focus is on the remaining project in Georgia. The cost of that project has doubled to twenty-seven billion dollars and it is way behind schedule. Westinghouse was also contracted to build the reactors at Vogtle and its bankruptcy hurt the project. Critics of the project demand that it be shut down.
The Public Service Commission of the State of Georgia will decide this week whether or not the project is viable. They will be deciding if the money already spent by Georgia Power which owns forty five percent of the project was a reasonable amount to recover from the ratepayers and whether the estimated future costs would also be reasonable.
The commission may decide that Southern Company, the parent company of Georgia Power should be forced to share some of the costs for the over budget project. If the commission rules against Georgia Power, that will give utilities that asked for the new reactors the ability to pull out of the project. It was just such a decision by one of the utilities that commissioned the new reactors in South Carolina that finally killed that project.
Georgia Power spent about five hundred million dollars in the first half of 2017 to pay contractors who were left unpaid by the Westinghouse bankruptcy to keep working. A decision on the fate was expected by February but the decision has been moved forward because of tax breaks that are set to expire by the end of the year. If it is decided that the project should be cancelled before the end of the year, Georgia would save a billion dollars. The commission has said that the project was no longer economically viable for a number of reasons.
The cancellation of the Vogtle reactors will deal a serious blow to hopes for a renewal of nuclear power in the U.S. Critics of nuclear power are saying that new nuclear power plants cannot be built economically. The Wall Street Journal said, “the era of large scale nuclear power plants in the U.S. is done.” Proponents of nuclear power say that there are economic and national security issues if the U.S. does not maintain a viable domestic and export nuclear industry.
Vogtle Reactor Construction:
