nuclear-news

Critics of SCE&G’s over-budget and behind-schedule nuclear expansion project are asking state regulators for help in stopping the company from spending more money on two atomic reactors now under construction in Fairfield County.

With the future of the project already in doubt, Friends of the Earth and the S.C. Sierra Club said Thursday they are requesting that the state Public Service Commission hold a hearing on the wisdom of continuing the now $14 billion project.

In a written filing, the groups said they want the regulatory agency to tell SCE&G “to immediately cease expending further capital costs on the project.’’ The groups have hired an economist to act as an expert witness in future PSC hearings about the V.C. Summer nuclear project.

SCE&G’s nuclear project, being constructed jointly with the state-owned Santee Cooper power company, is in trouble because contractor Westinghouse filed for bankruptcy this past spring. Westinghouse’s parent company, which was supposed to help guarantee money for the project, also is in financial jeopardy.

The project, launched about eight years ago, is today approaching $3 billion over budget and facing potentially more costs if it continues.

SCE&G and Santee Cooper now are reassessing whether they want to continue the project. They are supposed to complete an assessment of the plant’s future by Monday.

Since the project started, SC&G customers have been hit with nine rate increases to finance the work. That amounts to about 18 percent of the average customer’s power bill. All told, ratepayers have put about $1.4 billion toward the unfinished project so far. Construction on the twin reactors is about one-third complete. Ratepayers of Santee Cooper also have been charged for the project and electrical cooperative customers are facing potential increases in the next eight years.

Many people are today concerned that costs of the plant will continue to rise and ratepayers will again be asked to pay more in their monthly bills.

SCE&G and Santee Cooper are now trying to persuade Congress to extend a deadline for the plants to be completed so they can get a production tax credit. More than $2 billion in tax credits are riding on the bill, which is moving through the House of Representatives