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by WILL FOLKS
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As we exclusively reported yesterday, Santee Cooper – South Carolina’s debt-addled, chronically mismanaged, government-run power company – has controversially entered into an agreement with Canadian conglomerate Brookfield to purchase a pair of incomplete nuclear reactors at the V.C. Summer nuclear power generating station in Jenkinsville, S.C.
The state-owned utility’s politically appointed board voted to approve a letter of intent with the company – kickstarting a six-week “initial project feasibility period” on the reboot of the incomplete reactors, which have been collecting dust for the past eight years.
During that six weeks, Santee Cooper and Brookfield will “jointly select a project manager and evaluate construction providers that would be used in resuming construction of the two nuclear units.”
The utility reached its decision based on what it claimed was “a thorough, expert-driven review of proposals from global leaders in the nuclear power industry.” However, as we previously noted, one of those “global leaders” insists the process was “fundamentally compromised.”
“The RFP process itself may have been fundamentally compromised by the evaluation of bids outside the established framework, by parties previously involved in the V.C. Summer project, and with access to information that the other parties did not have,” Jonathan Webb, chief executive officer of The Nuclear Company, wrote in a scathing letter (.pdf) to the utility’s board dated Thursday (October 23, 2025).
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“Sadly, this creates an uneven playing field and undermines the transparency and fairness essential to a project of this importance,” Webb added.
Santee Cooper did not address the concerns raised by Webb, choosing instead to lay out the purported benefits of the plan it ultimately embraced.
“Brookfield came to Santee Cooper with a proposal that set out the path to turn our prior nuclear investment into lasting value for our customers and all South Carolinians,” Santee Cooper board chairman Peter McCoy said in a statement. “Our goals include completing these reactors with private money and no ratepayer or taxpayer expense, delivering financial relief to our customers and gaining significant additional power capacity for South Carolina. Brookfield’s proposal would do just that, and the company has the financial capability to stand behind its proposal.”
The two next generation, pressurized water reactors at V.C. Summer were partially constructed between 2008 and 2017 at a cost of more than $10 billion in ratepayer and taxpayer money by Santee Cooper and private sector provider SCANA. They were never completed, however. In fact Unit No. 2 – the one farthest along – is less than 50% complete. Facing protracted delays, massive cost overruns, criminal negligence and institutional dishonesty – the plug was eventually pulled on the project, leaving millions of Palmetto State residents holding the bag.
We christened the fiasco “NukeGate.”
“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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RELATED | CHAOS AHEAD OF NUCLEAR REVEAL
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Santee Cooper’s release declined to provide specifics related to the Brookfield proposal, but as we reported yesterday sources familiar with the deal indicated it put at least $2.7 billion on the table to address lingering ratepayer obligations tied to the new project. The company also agreed to allow Santee Cooper to retain a 25% stake in the final project – and receive 25% of the power it provided (at a below market cost).
Santee Cooper patted itself on the back for its “strategic decision to maintain the equipment over the past eight years,” however the real credit for that decision belongs to S.C. 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.”
“We stand on the precipice of transforming that perceived failure into a productive asset while pioneering an innovative approach to power generation, one that places the financial burden on the private hyperscalers that are creating the demand for new energy capacity,” Davis wrote in a letter to the editor of The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier. “This is far more than a financial recovery from the failed Santee Cooper-SCANA venture. More broadly, it shows how our state can more efficiently and equitably approach energy-infrastructure development in the years to come.”
Santee Cooper claimed “the state of the units, and the fact that they use the same Westinghouse AP1000 technology that is now operating in Georgia and overseas, make these assets very attractive to the nuclear power industry.”
They were correct. In addition to Brookfield and The Nuclear Company, two other companies – Elementl and the Oppenheimer Project – reportedly made the final cut. Neither of those entities have commented on the allegations leveled by The Nuclear Company about Santee Cooper’s bidding process, however.
Santee Cooper stated its process “developed key financial, risk mitigation and execution criteria by which the final proposals were measured.” Its chief executive officer, Jimmy Staton, insisted the Brookfield bid offered the “best value” and the “best certainty.”
Count on FITSNews to keep our audience apprised of the latest developments as this reboot commences…
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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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2 comments
Brookfield has already made hundreds of millions of dollars off of this deal. They were dealt the inside opportunity in bankruptcy filings, equipment sales, financing opportunities, Westinghouse, , etc.
The real story of this betrayal of the public’s trust and purse is what the public never saw. Trace all funds to Brookfield and the real story becomes clear.
BTW, I was told years ago that Brookfield would restart the plant.
Setup for failure number 2 and power brokers will make bank off this deal again.