The Stop Nuclear Plant Project can be restarted in South Carolina – Internal news news

Near Jenkinsville, South Carolina, a dirt road lead to semi-constructed nuclear reactors, which are sitting inactive since 2017. The unsuccessful nuclear power plant is one of the most famous energy enterprises in the country-what customers are still paying today. Now Santi Cooper wants to revive him.

The utility announced at the end of last month that it would seek requests for proposals for a developer to buy and complete one or two partially constructed units that had to be supplements to the existing VC summer factory. “We are observing renewed interest in nuclear energy, fueled by advanced investment in production, the demand for the AI ​​data center and the goals of the zero carbon of the technology industry,” said Jimmy Staton, president and CEO of Santee Cooper in the press release.

While the construction of a nuclear power plant from scratch often takes more than a decade, the already launched project can give a new developer to the beginning, Santi Cooper said. If finished, it will generate 2200 megawatts of nuclear capacity – enough to feed hundreds of thousands of homes.

The project was suspended in 2017 “The following years of big and expensive delays and then bankruptcy on the part of its contractor,” said Santi Cooper. At this point, Santee Cooper and Gas and Electric South Carolina (now part of Dominion Energy) had already poured $ 9 billion into the project. Santee Cooper and Dominion customers pay for these costs, although the units have not worked.

State legislators insist on completing it as a way of not allowing this money to go down the sewer. In December 2024, the Senate filed a bill promoting the Santee Cooper to issue a request as soon as possible for the suggestions for completing summer units of VC two and three.

The site is reported to be edible to continue. In September 2024, the nuclear Advisory Board of South Carolina Governor, along with Santi Cooper’s staff, inspects the site and announced that it was “in excellent condition” as a whole: “the overall impression of the condition of the site is one of the stopping of several months. “

The two groups categorically recommended that they move on with the completion of the nuclear power plant, citing the “waiting shortage of energy in South Carolina”, “striving for sustainable and reliable energy sources”, along with the “extensive time for launching new nuclear projects and the significant quantity of quantity Value has already been invested in the completed work and inventory of VC summer. ”

South Carolina expects an unprecedented increase in energy consumption in the coming years as data centers are poured into the country. There are already major data centers in the country, including two Google facilities, with more in the pipeline. Meta has announced plans last summer to build a $ 800 million data center in Aiken County.

The Palmetto state is an attractive place for companies to build data centers that are physical buildings full of computers that store and disseminate data such as Google Cloud and Systems Artificial Intelligence. In addition to the relatively low energy rates, South Carolina Communal Services offer special prices for big customers, “to try to attract some of these new businesses,” says Kate Mickson, a senior lawyer at the Southern Environment Center.

With the dramatic rise of artificial intelligence, technology companies are in a hurry to build more data centers quickly and communal services are worried about increasing the needs of electricity, Mixson said. In 2023, the data center industry was estimated at $ 219 billion in the United States, but was forecast to more than double up to 2032, according to Fortune Business Insights.

VC Summer will not be the first revival of nuclear power plants. In September 2024, Constellation Energy announced plans to restart three miles of department 1 in Pennsylvania and signed a 20-year Microsoft Energy Purchase Agreement. The same month of the US Department of Energy has allocated $ 1.52 billion to restart the famous nuclear power plant Palisades Palisades in Michigan.

But VC Summer may be the first and only nuclear restart project after being built halfway.

If Santee Cooper finds a buyer, there are questions about how quickly the project can be completed. The neighboring Georgia was expected to expand Vogtle nuclear installation in 2009 to take eight to nine years and cost $ 14 billion. The project ended last year with a total price of over $ 30 billion.

“This is one of the most expensive things that have ever been built on the face of the earth,” says Eddie Moore, director of decarbonization at the South Alliance for Clean Energy.

Meanwhile, Santee Cooper and Dominion are urging the legislative power to approve permits to build a new gas plant, which they believe is necessary to adapt energy demand. The bill will also include permits for the construction of small nuclear reactors, with a language that allows utility services to charge energy clients if these installations are abandoned. “We think it’s extremely risky,” Moore said.

The projected growth of energy demand can change for several years below, and expansion of VC summer is a long-term investment that may not be completed in another decade. Instead, the addition of energy gradually through a sunny and battery “would be financially responsible and would be hedging against load growth potentially does not happen,” Moore said. “Let’s build something that is safe and cheap and we know we can add quickly.”