A project to add two reactors to a Georgia nuclear power plant may fail mid-construction if its backers cannot convince federal officials to expedite some federal funding assistance, and possibly secure more grants or loans for the project, Reuters reports.
Supporters of Southern Company’s Vogtle plant are in Washington asking the Department of Energy (DOE) to rush a loan guarantee with $5.7 billion still unpaid to the companies responsible for the plant’s expansion. A cost estimate done last week projected that finishing construction will cost about $25 billion, however, according to Reuters.
Vogtle plant construction is at least partly responsible for the bankruptcy of Westinghouse Electric Company in March. Westinghouse was responsible for a couple nuclear construction projects in the U.S. at the time it went under, Vogtle and a plant in South Carolina, The New York Times reports.
Construction has already been stopped on the nuclear power plant in South Carolina. South Carolina regulators shut down construction after SCANA Corporation, the utility in charge of the plant, failed to get a $3 billion DOE grant to fund costly project. (RELATED: Struggling Utility Begged Trump For $3 Billion To Keep A Nuclear Power Plant Open — They Didn’t Get It)
Georgia Public Service Commission vice chairman Tim Echols believes the Vogtle plant will be back on track in Westinghouse Electric is able to pay its promised $3.68 billion to the project, according to Bloomberg.
“We are not going to throw in the towel like South Carolina,” Echols said.
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