Climate Changed
South Carolina May Spend 60 Years Paying for Nukes Never Built
- Scana seeking to collect $4.9 billion for abandoning project
- Utility owner is proposing to recover costs over six decades
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Utility customers in South Carolina may end up spending the next 60 years paying billions for two nuclear reactors that’ll never get built, based on a proposal that Scana Corp. filed with regulators late Tuesday.
Scana is seeking state approval to collect $4.9 billion from customers to cover the costs of scrapping two half-finished reactors after construction delays and billions in cost overruns forced the utility owner to pull the plug. Scana is proposing to gradually recover abandonment expenses through customer rates over six decades. Going through with the project would’ve ultimately cost more than $20 billion, based on company forecasts.