Bechtel, Fluor Said to Prepare Bids for Southern Nuclear Project
- Southern sees deciding fate of new nuclear units by August
- Bankrupt contractor Westinghouse seeks to exit construction
FILE - This Friday, June 13, 2014, file photo, shows the cooling towers, right, and nuclear reactor containment buildings area, left, at Plant Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant in Waynesboro, Ga. Westinghouse Electric Co., the U.S. nuclear unit of Japans Toshiba Corp., filed for bankruptcy protection Wednesday, March 29, 2017, calling into question the future of a number of billion-dollar nuclear projects under construction, including two in the U.S. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)
Bechtel Corp. is preparing a bid to potentially take over the construction of two nuclear reactors at Southern Co.’s Vogtle plant in Georgia, a project that’s been plagued by years of delays and billions of dollars in cost overruns.
Bechtel, a closely-held engineering and construction company, is expected to have an estimate on how much it would cost to take over construction from Toshiba Corp.’s bankrupt Westinghouse Electric Co. unit by August, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. Fluor Corp., which is already a subcontractor at the Vogtle site, is preparing its own estimate, one of the people said. Southern, which owns almost half the project, estimated $7.75 billion as its share of total capital and financing costs in December.