It's senators' turn to grill executives of utilities that bailed on a nuclear power project in South Carolina.
Officials with South Carolina Electric & Gas and state-owned Santee Cooper are to testify Monday before a Senate panel investigating the project's failure. A House panel questioned SCE&G executives Friday about a 2015 assessment of the project the utilities kept secret. It was released earlier this month.
Unit one of the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station near Jenkinsville, S.C., is viewed during a media tour of the facility. Proponents of nuclear power are pushing to revive a failed project to build two reactors in South Carolina, arguing that the demise of the $14 billion venture could signal doom for an industry that supplies one-fifth of the nation’s electricity. The July 31 suspension of the partly-completed V.C. Summer project near Columbia, S.C., leaves two nuclear reactors under construction in Georgia as the only ones being built in the U.S. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton, File)The utilities abandoned construction of two reactors July 31 after jointly spending nearly $10 billion.
Kevin Marsh, CEO of SCE&G's parent company SCANA, insisted Friday the utility did nothing wrong. Marsh said the report was confidential because it was intended to be used in a lawsuit against the site's main contractor. SCANA has not sued Westinghouse. But several lawsuits have been filed against the utilities.
