South Carolina calls time on two half-completed nuclear reactors

Construction has stopped on two nuclear reactors at a site in the south-eastern US state of South Carolina following delays, rising costs and the bankruptcy of the plant manufacturer Westinghouse.

The utilities that co-own the project, South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G) at 55% and the state-owned Santee Cooper at 45%, said that the decision to halt the construction of the VC Summer 2 and 3 reactors would save customers around $7bn in costs that otherwise would have been needed to complete the project.

Santee Cooper said it decided to suspend the project after receiving cost data and a completion schedule from Westinghouse and its subcontractor Fluor Corporation, which indicated the reactors would not be completed until 2022 and 2024 – four years after the previous estimate.

The cost of the project for Santee Cooper had increased from a 2015 estimate of $6.2bn, to $8bn, plus $3.4bn in interest. The company has said that it has already spent $4.7bn on its 45% of the project. Its President and CEO Lonnie Carter said: ‘We simply cannot ask our customers to pay for a project that has become uneconomical. And even though suspending construction is the best option for them, we are disappointed that our contractor has failed to meet its obligations and put Santee Cooper and our customers in this situation.’

Another two AP1000 Westinghouse reactors in the south-eastern US at Plant Vogtle in Georgia are also facing problems. A decision from the utility Georgia Power, the majority owner, on whether to recommend continuing with the 66% completed project is expected by the end of August.

Georgia Power has estimated that between an additional $1bn–1.7bn would be needed above the original budget to complete the two reactors, which were scheduled for completion by 2022 and 2023. Georgia Power says it would cost $6.3bn to cancel the project.

These plants – some of the first to have begun construction in the US in a number of decades – are facing a market that is substantially different to when they were ordered – with lower-than-forecast demand, cheaper gas and increasingly competitive renewable energy. Several existing nuclear plants in the US, including the infamous Three Mile Island, are set to close early with their operators indicating that they are unprofitable in the current US energy system.

Elsewhere in the world of nuclear, the final reactor vessel and steam generators have been installed at the UAE’s Barakah nuclear power plant, which comprises four Korean-designed APR1400 reactors. This means the fourth unit is now over 50% complete, and the overall project over 80% complete, reports World Nuclear News.

In China, the fourth unit of the Fuqing nuclear power plant in the Fujian province has been connected to the grid. The 1 GW unit is the country’s 37th operational reactor. And in Pakistan, the country’s fifth reactor, Chashma 4, has been connected to the grid.

The World Nuclear Association’s World Nuclear Performance Report 2017 indicates that 9 GW of new nuclear capacity came online worldwide in 2016, which it says is the largest annual increase for over 25 years. It also says that annual global nuclear power generation rose for the fourth successive year.

 A total of 61 nuclear reactors were under construction at the end of 2016.