Santee Cooper is seeking proposals to acquire and complete construction of two partially built nuclear reactors at the V.C. Summer plant to help meet expected electricity demand.
The state-owned utility, known legally as the South Carolina Public Service Authority, announced plans Jan. 22 to conduct a request for proposals for the two partially constructed reactors at the plant in Jenkinsville, South Carolina. Santee Cooper is looking for parties interested in acquiring the project and related assets and completing one or both units or pursuing alternative uses. Responses are due to Centerview Partners LLC on May 5.
"We are seeing renewed interest in nuclear energy, fueled by advanced manufacturing investments, AI-driven datacenter demand and the tech industry's zero-carbon targets," Santee Cooper President and CEO Jimmy 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."
The utility said part of its decision to seek proposals for the plant included additional federal support for nuclear construction, including tax credits and loan guarantees.
Officials advocated for restart
Members of a South Carolina nuclear advisory council in October 2024 called for a study into restarting construction on the V.C. Summer expansion to help meet projected growth in energy demand in the state.
"We went down to visit the scene of the crime, and we were quite surprised," Jim Little, a council member with decades of nuclear industry experience, including at Westinghouse Electric Co. LLC, said in October. Westinghouse was the primary contractor on the unfinished expansion at V.C. Summer and Southern Co.'s two new operating reactors at the Vogtle Nuclear Plant in Georgia. "We're running out of generation. We should take a last look before we declare this thing a scrap field and sell it off for scrap value."
The two abandoned AP 1000 units are identical to those now operating at Vogtle, Little said. V.C. Summer unit 2 is about 48% complete and unit 3 is "significantly less than that," making unit 2 the more attractive and likely candidate for renewed construction.
Santee Cooper and project partner South Carolina Electric & Gas Co., then a subsidiary of SCANA Corp., stopped construction on the two-reactor V.C. Summer expansion in July 2017 with the project reeling from billions of dollars in cost overruns months after Westinghouse filed for bankruptcy. Dominion Energy Inc. acquired SCANA after the project was shut down, and Dominion and Santee Cooper customers were saddled with the cost of the failed expansion effort.
The existing 994-MW V.C. Summer unit, which began operating in 1984, and the abandoned units are co-owned by South Carolina Electric & Gas' successor company, Dominion Energy South Carolina Inc., and Santee Cooper. Dominion is seeking a 20-year license extension for the operating unit, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data. The two additional planned units were expected to generate 1,117 MW each.
Santee Cooper had been marketing equipment for units 2 and 3 for several years, through Westinghouse for nuclear-specific equipment and a third party for other components, and has sold more than $100 million in equipment so far, including reactor coolant pumps, Santee Cooper spokesperson Nicole Aiello told S&P Global Commodity Insights in October.
The remaining equipment has been preserved, and the utility is working with the advisory council and others to provide access to the site so they can consider a formal evaluation of the project and equipment, Aiello said.
"Although Santee Cooper has no plans to own or operate those units, this process could help identify another entity with a viable alternative that would produce benefits for our customers, support economic development and provide value to the state of South Carolina," Staton said Jan. 22.
Demand boom
Vogtle's completion and the increasing electricity demand across the country, including from large-load customers such as datacenters and manufacturers, have put a renewed spotlight on nuclear power in the US.
"There's really a lot of money in the ground," Richard Lee, chairman of the South Carolina Governor's Nuclear Advisory Council, said of the V.C. Summer site. "My hope is that we don't wind up with a concrete monolith that sits there for 100 years that really is a symbol of a failure."
Completing unit 2 of the expansion will likely cost billions of dollars and take about eight years, council members said.
There is no regulatory process in place for restarting construction of a reactor after its federal license is terminated, though that process is being considered as Holtec International Inc. pursues restarting Michigan's Palisades nuclear plant.
A South Carolina Senate committee worked for months in 2024 to address the expected energy shortage after broad energy legislation that included a significant expansion of gas generation in the state stalled out earlier this year. A version of that sweeping energy legislation has been reintroduced for the 2025 legislative session.
