Vogtle, Summer nuclear plants face bleak outlook after Westinghouse bankruptcy

Enlarge / In 2013, atomic plant Vogtle was a 2-unit nuclear power plant located in Burke County, near Waynesboro, Georgia, in USA. Each unit has a Westinghouse pressurized water reactor (PWR), with a General Electric turbine and electric generator, producing approximately 2,400 MW of electricity. The cost overruns incurred in making Westinghouse's AP 1000 reactors led to the Toshiba subsidiary's bankruptcy. (Photo by Pallava Bagla/Corbis via Getty Images) (credit: Pallava Bagla / Getty Images)

The Summer nuclear reactor expansion in South Carolina and the Vogtle nuclear plant expansion in Georgia may never come to fruition after the plants' original contractor, Westinghouse, filed for bankruptcy in March.

Last week, power company Santee Cooper and energy company SCANA Corp announced that they would walk away (PDF) from the Summer plant. They made the announcement after calculating that the plant could cost an additional $11.4 billion to finish, which would bring the final bill to more than $25 billion.

Santee Cooper owns 45 percent of the Summer plant and SCANA owns 55 percent. Westinghouse parent company Toshiba offered the two companies $2.2 billion toward the completion of the plant, but the two companies found that sum insufficient to continue construction.

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