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by WILL FOLKS
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Eight years after the spectacular implosion of a multi-billion-dollar, command economic boondoggle, the state of South Carolina is getting back in the nuclear power business.
The good news? This time Palmetto State politicians and their results-challenged energy bureaucrats are letting the private sector lead the way…
Last month, we reported that South Carolina’s debt-addled, government-run power company – Santee Cooper – was reviewing bids to offload the state’s interest in a pair of abandoned, partially completed nuclear reactors at the V.C. Summer nuclear generating station in Fairfield County. These two next generation, pressurized water reactors were supposed to have been finished in 2017, but delays and cost overruns doomed their construction – leading to the project’s eventual abandonment after a whopping $10 billion of taxpayer and ratepayer money had already been spent.
The resulting fiasco, which we christened “NukeGate,” dominated headlines for years… and plunged Santee Cooper even deeper into debt than it already was.
“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,” we noted in our recent coverage. “Instead, the abandoned project generated nothing but lies, taxpayer debt and higher rates on South Carolina energy customers.”
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As the dust from the debacle settled, finger-pointing and blame game shaming were the order of the day… with one notable exception: state senator Tom Davis of Bluffton, S.C. Davis moved immediately to preserve the abandoned site, noting the state had a “fiduciary duty” to the taxpayers and ratepayers who poured their money into the project. Last December, Davis filed legislation – S. 51 – which instructed the utility to seek out potential buyers for the unfinished V.C. Summer reactors “as expeditiously as possible.”
Santee Cooper has done just that…
As we reported last month, its politically appointed board held a closed door meeting on September 22, 2025 to “discuss negotiations incident to proposed contractual arrangements related to V.C. Summer 2 and 3.”
According to our sources, Santee Cooper received an estimated 14 proposals related to the abandoned site – prompting the utility to ask each bidder to explore possible collaborative submissions. As of last month, there were reportedly three “consortium” proposals under consideration by the utility.
This week, Santee Cooper – with counsel from Centerview Partners and J.P. Morgan – will reportedly discuss the winning bid, according to a letter to senators from the utility’s chief executive officer, Jimmy Staton.
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RELATED | SANTEE COOPER REVIEWS REACTOR BIDS
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“In the near future, additional information will be provided to the Board of Directors along with management’s recommendations on how we should proceed,” Staton’s letter (.pdf) noted. “We anticipate additional steps between management’s recommendation to the board and our reaching a memorandum of understanding with the selected developer.”
Details regarding the winning proposal will reportedly be shared with board members at their scheduled meeting this Friday (October 24, 2025) in Columbia, S.C.
“This restart of the (reactors) in Jenkinsville… could generate thousands of construction jobs in the short term and generate highly skilled permanent operational positions in the long term,” Staton wrote. “In addition, completing these units strengthens and diversifies the state’s energy portfolio in alignment with the goals of the Energy Security Act, enhances grid reliability for businesses, and helps attract new employers. In short, completing construction of the AP1000 units in Jenkinsville would be an all-around win for South Carolina, providing reliable power for the future of our state.”
That’s true… as long as Santee Cooper stays the hell out of it.
Which it seems to be doing…
“Our process is intended to bring significant private capital, advanced expertise, and power generation capacity to our state through the selection of a private party with the necessary resources,” Staton added, referring to the winning consortium of private companies. “Involving a private party is a new model for nuclear construction that will protect ratepayers.”
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Wait, though… where was this commitment to “ratepayer protection” a decade ago? Where was it prior to $10 billion being blown on an abandoned asset? Where was it when Santee Cooper was habitually lying to the public about the status of the NukeGate project?
And perhaps the most important question of them all: if the private sector is better at running a power company than the government (which it most assuredly is)… why on earth is the state of South Carolina still running one?
While it remains our firm conviction that Santee Cooper should be completely privatized, Davis’ efforts to salvage something out of the NukeGate fiasco are commendable.
“This is what I’ve been waiting over eight years for: to not only convert $9 billion of what many in July 2017 called a completely unrecoverable waste of money into a productive asset, but to do so in a way that assigns the cost of new power generation to the private hyper-scalers driving the need for that new generation,” Davis told FITSNews. “Also, once this sale is finalized, billions of dollars in sunk costs will come off the ratepayers’ base, which in turn will decrease their monthly bills. And once the two reactors are completed, with private capital and at private risk, an additional 2,200 megawatts of carbon-free energy will come on line. This new generation model can be replicated in future years to meet future needs. A source of shame will become a source of pride.”
“Achieving this win-win-win outcome is why I drafted the joint resolution in 2018 directing Santee Cooper to keep the improvements on the ground in good condition, instead of selling off components for pennies on the dollar, and it’s why I drafted the joint resolution this past January — unanimously passed by the legislature and signed by the governor — directing Santee Cooper to solicit acquisition/completion bids from the private sector,” Davis added.
Davis has also reiterated that time is of the essence given U.S. president Donald Trump’s recent executive order aimed at kickstarting nuclear power generation.
“There’s a ton of new interest in nuclear but a finite number of guarantees,” Davis told us last month.
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THE LETTER…
(Santee Cooper)
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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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1 comment
Editor Will Folks – Still have my $.024 check from Santee Cooper Settlement, Cook et al, etc. Framed and on my wall. There were about half a dozen law firms that were listed as Plaintiffs in the $500,000,000 or so judgment. Where’s the story on how much money they split up while the customers are getting checks for pennies? Drop by sometime I’ll show you the check.