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A debt-ridden, government-run power company in South Carolina is gauging corporate interest in rebooting a failed nuclear power project that plunged Palmetto State ratepayers and taxpayers billions of dollars in the red eight years ago.
Surprisingly, though, optimism abounds this go-round…
Santee Cooper – a chronically mismanaged, state-owned utility which has received hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts – is seeking requests for proposals (RFPs) to “acquire and complete, or propose alternatives, for two partially constructed (nuclear) generating units at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in Jenkinsville, S.C.”
To that end, the utility has engaged New York-based Centerview Partners for the purpose of “seeking parties interested in acquiring the project and related assets, and potentially completing one or both units or pursuing alternative uses of the assets.”
That’s right… the spectacularly failed ‘NukeGate‘ project could be experiencing a Lazarus moment.
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Thankfully, the entity which contributed so mightily to the multi-billion dollar debacle will not be part of any venture involving its leftover assets.
“Santee Cooper has no plans to own or operate those units,” utility president and chief executive officer Jimmy Staton said.
To the hundreds of thousands of customers still subsidizing the botched construction, that’s a welcome acknowledgment – although it would seem to further confirm what this media outlet has been saying for years, namely that state government has no business trying to run a power company.
To recap: Fom 2008-2017, South Carolina politicians and energy executives blew more than $10 billion of taxpayer and ratepayer money on a pair of next-generation nuclear reactors in Fairfield County.
The two reactors were never completed…
Units No. 2 and No. 3 at the V.C. Summer nuclear power generating facility in Jenkinsville, S.C. were supposed to usher in a new era of energy generation in the Palmetto State – producing a combined 2,300 megawatts of clean, carbon-free energy. Instead, the abandoned project generated nothing but lies, taxpayer debt and higher rates on South Carolina energy customers.
In addition to those adverse impacts, the failure also set South Carolina back “bigly” on the power generation front at the very moment population growth was placing strain on our grid.
“The implosion of this project happened at the precise moment the Palmetto State desperately needed to add new generating capacity to handle a wave of fresh demand for industrial, commercial and residential power,” I noted last October.
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RELATED | SHOULD S.C. REBOOT V.C. SUMMER?
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Santee Cooper solicited the RFPs after state senator Tom Davis, a Republican from Beaufort, S.C., filed legislation on December 11, 2024 which would have required it to do so. Davis’ bill, S. 51, commanded the utility to seek out potential buyers “as expeditiously as possible.”
“South Carolina is facing a crossroads in its electric generation future,” Davis’ legislation noted. “Significant population growth and increased economic development in the state is increasing the demand for electricity at a time when the state’s electric utilities are planning to retire their traditional coal baseload generation plants to transition to other generation resources.”
According to Davis, “betting interest will be strong, with tech giants in need of clean energy to fuel data centers for artificial-intelligence capabilities.”
Davis is no stranger to forcing Santee Cooper’s hand. Back in 2018, he correctly pointed out the state had a “fiduciary duty” to preserve the abandoned V.C. Summer assets – arguing a “thorough and public assessment” ought to be undertaken with the goal of determining “whether and under what conditions a completion of the two partially completed reactors might be feasible.”
Simply scrapping the site and having its components “stripped and sold for pennies on the dollar” would not be in “the best interests of South Carolinians,” Davis said at the time.
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.@wsj: @SanteeCooper is looking for buyers to restart construction on nuclear reactors mothballed years ago, betting interest will be strong, with tech giants in need of clean energy to fuel data centersfor artificial-intelligence capabilities. https://t.co/8Kfy0V5bS4
— Tom Davis (@SenTomDavisSC) January 22, 2025
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Santee Cooper officials obviously concurred with his assessment.
“We are seeing renewed interest in nuclear energy, fueled by advanced manufacturing investments, AI-driven data center demand, and the tech industry’s zero-carbon targets,” Staton said. “Considering the long timelines required to bring new nuclear units online, Santee Cooper has a unique opportunity to explore options for Summer Units 2 and 3 and their related assets that could allow someone to generate reliable, carbon emissions-free electricity on a meaningfully shortened timeline.”
As I noted last month, the state’s Nuclear Advisory Council (NAC) visited the project site on September 14, 2024 and determined there were “no obvious conditions” which would “preclude undertaking completion” of the two reactors.
“The condition of the various buildings and facilities shows no degradation, corrosion or spalling of concrete,” the NAC presentation (.pdf) noted. “All of the installed components show no corrosion other than surface rust which would be expected under a construction project in progress. The exposed rebar material, which is coated, also shows no serious defects and with normal rust management techniques could be ready for additional concrete lifts.”
Santee Cooper desperately needs the proceeds a ‘NukeGate’ asset sale could net, as the utility is on the verge of massive consumer rate hikes this year.
News of Santee Cooper’s solicitation was first reported by Lauren Thomas of The Wall Street Journal. According to her, the utility “will likely look to tap a consortium that could include a construction firm, a tech company that will use the power and an additional partner for capital.” Interested parties will have until May 5, 2025 to submit their proposals to Centerview.
Count on FITSNews to keep our audience apprised of responses…
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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