South Carolina’s New Nuclear Reactors More Than $1 Billion Over Budget
SCANA announces cost impacts from latest scheduling delays for V.C. Summer reactors; all nuclear reactors under construction in U.S. are delayed with cost overruns
Contact: Jennifer Rennicks, SACE, 865-235-1448, [email protected]
Charleston, S.C. (October 2, 2014) ///PRESS STATEMENT/// SCANA now joins other utilities, including Tennessee Valley Authority and the Southern Company, in being plagued with cost overruns and scheduling delays as they attempt to build two new reactors at their V.C. Summer nuclear plant. The utility revealed today that their portion of the troubled Toshiba-Westinghouse AP1000 project has increased by $660 million in 2007 dollars, bringing the full estimated cost overrun to over $1.2 billion. In early August, the utility announced another delay of approximately 12 months; the project is now more than 2.5 years delayed. SCANA’s subsidiary, SCE&G, is majority owner with 55% of the project; Santee Cooper with 45%. Today’s announcement occurred just one week after SCE&G received approval from the South Carolina Public Service Commission (PSC) for the seventh rate increase.
In response to this announcement, Sara Barczak, High Risk Energy Choices Program Director with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, made this statement:
“All three nuclear projects under construction in the U.S., Watts Bar in Tennessee, Vogtle in Georgia and now V.C. Summer in South Carolina, are significantly behind schedule and over budget. There are no protections for consumers when it comes to these projects – one after the other we see the same story play out – at first a low cost estimate with extreme confidence that things will be different this time around, ignoring the nuclear power industry’s terrible track record. And then it all changes. We have argued that these cost overruns should not and do not have to only be borne by utility customers. SCANA and Southern Company’s shareholders for instance, who stand to profit significantly from the long-term rate of return guaranteed on these multibillion-dollar investments should pick up much of these cost overruns. Ratepayers are basically carrying all the risk, while shareholders are getting all the profit.”
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Founded in 1985, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy is a nonprofit organization that promotes responsible energy choices that create global warming solutions and ensure clean, safe, and healthy communities throughout the Southeast. Learn more at www.cleanenergy.org.