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by WILL FOLKS
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The politically appointed leaders of South Carolina’s debt-addled, government-run power company, Santee Cooper, are finally trying to get something right for a change…
Sadly, Santee Cooper’s board members are not voting to offload this historically mismanaged asset to the private sector… something they should have done decades ago (before incurring more than $7 billion in government debt and requiring multiple taxpayer-funded bailouts to keep the state-owned utility above water).
Instead, the utility’s leadership is reviewing bids to offload the state’s interest in a pair of abandoned, partially completed nuclear reactors located 25 miles northwest of Columbia, S.C.
Remember these two units? If you pay taxes (or a monthly power bill) in the Palmetto State, you should.
From 2008-2017, South Carolina politicians – and energy executives at Santee Cooper and the now-defunct SCANA corporation – blew more than $10 billion of taxpayer and ratepayer money on a pair of next-generation pressurized water reactors at the V.C. Summer nuclear power generating facility in Jenkinsville, S.C.
The two reactors were never completed, though… and until recently there were no plans to complete them.
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Units No. 2 and No. 3 at V.C. Summer 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 – a fiasco we referred to as ‘NukeGate.’
State senator Tom Davis, a Republican from Beaufort, S.C., has been doing his best to ensure taxpayers and ratepayers aren’t left completely holding the bag for this disaster. Last December, Davis filed a bill, S. 51, which instructed the utility to seek out potential buyers for the unfinished V.C. Summer reactors “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.”
Santee Cooper heeded Davis’ command – and began soliciting proposals for the unfinished reactors earlier this year. Five months ago, the utility reported receiving “a robust response to its initial request for expressions of interest” – citing proposals from “leading construction, financial, utility, and technology firms from around the world.”
“Santee Cooper is pleased with the level of response by industry leaders to this initial step in what will be a deliberate process related to the future of these two units,” the utility’s president and chief executive officer Jimmy Staton noted. “The depth and breadth of experience represented by the responding entities is encouraging, and we are committed to giving the review of responses the level of seriousness that it needs and deserves.”
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“Santee Cooper’s motivation in this process is to maximize the value of the assets at Jenkinsville for the benefit of our customers,” Staton added. “Santee Cooper does not want to own or operate these units, but if we can enable someone else to bring these units online, then South Carolina also benefits from the additional emissions-free capacity the units would provide.”
According to our sources, an estimated 14 proposals were initially submitted to Santee Cooper – prompting the utility to go to each bidder and ask them to sharpen their pencils, and to explore possible collaborative bids. As of this writing, there are reportedly three “consortium” proposals under consideration by the utility.
Centerview Partners and J.P. Morgan have been assisting Santee Cooper in its review of these submissions.
On Monday (September 22, 2025), Santee Cooper’s board held a special called meeting (.pdf) to “discuss negotiations incident to proposed contractual arrangements related to V.C. Summer 2 and 3.” Unfortunately, the entirety of the discussion related to the reactors was conducted behind closed doors in executive session.
The clock is ticking for South Carolina, according to Davis – who cited U.S. president Donald Trump‘s recent executive order aimed at “leveraging the full suite of federal financial resources to support the restart, completion, uprate, and construction of nuclear plants.”
That leveraging includes “federal loans and loan guarantees… to support increased nuclear energy, including restarting closed nuclear power plants and completing construction of prematurely suspended plants.”
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In other words, facilities just like V.C. Summer.
“The demand side of the equation is exponentially greater now,” Davis told FITSNews, referring to the urgency of Trump’s executive order.
Davis said South Carolina has a leg up on its competitors given the advanced construction of V.C. Summer (especially Unit No. 2, which was 48% completed when the project was abandoned eight years ago). Still, he cautioned Trump’s order had unleashed a mad rush to take advantage of the new nuclear incentives – meaning the Palmetto State must move fast to secure its place in the queue.
“There’s a ton of new interest in nuclear but a finite number of guarantees,” Davis said, adding the entities which ultimately win the proposal must “file applications” and navigate a significant amount of regulatory red tape.
Santee Cooper is expected to choose one of the three final “consortium proposals” over the next few weeks, and begin the feasibility phase of the project with the winning bidders during the fourth quarter of 2025.
As we have done from the beginning of this process, count on FITSNews to keep our audience apprised of the latest developments. Also, props to Davis not only for holding the utility’s feet to the fire – but for having the foresight to retain and maintain these assets.
Seven years ago, Davis correctly pointed out the state had a “fiduciary duty” to preserve the abandoned V.C. Summer site – 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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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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4 comments
B
There is nothing more satisfying than the second kick of a mule, if your the mule.
Have you ever noticed the national engineering consultancies seem smarter than the General Assembly, Governor and the power companies combined?
What language do you write the “do not open” warnings in? The waste will still be face meltingly dangerous 10,000 years from now.
“Sadly, Santee Cooper’s board members are not voting to offload this historically mismanaged asset to the private sector”
Ah yes, because SCE&G’s side of things worked out so well.
FITS Opinion needs to do a bit more research and work more diligently to get the facts right even if the facts aren’t so sensational. Santee Cooper doesn’t get a dime from taxpayers. Instead they pay significant fees to help support the state. Try looking at the enabling legislation for the facts.