After spending more than $1.5 billion for construction and operating licenses for four new AP1000 nuclear plants in Florida and North Carolina, Duke Energy announced it will end activity on those plants and, at least in Florida, will pursue more solar power.
The legal, political and economic effects of two South Carolina utilities’ decision to abandon construction of the V.C. Summer nuclear expansion project have barely begun.
The Justice Dept. on April 24 announced that Tucker, Ga.-based Energy & Process Corp. has agreed to pay $4.6 million over the government’s allegations the company knowingly provided reinforcing steel to the mixed oxide fuel fabrication (MOX) facility that did not meet standards for nuclear construction.
Georgia Power and SCANA Corp. on April 28 separately announced that each had extended their “interim assessment agreements” with contractor Westinghouse Electric Co. (WEC) to keep construction progressing on two separate nuclear expansion projects, while the contractor proceeds with its bankruptcy plan.
Westinghouse Electric Co.’s recent realization of more than $6 billion in additional costs related to completing construction of two U.S. nuclear projects forced the firm to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on March 29.
While questions swirl around the future of large nuclear plants in the U.S. NuScale, majority owned by Fluor, is pushing a plan to build a nuclear plant using its small, 50-megawatt modular reactors.
The U.K. Nuclear Decommissioning Authority will cancel a 14-year contract worth about $7.7 billion awarded in 2014 and pay over $122 million compensation to the U.S.-based consortium that failed to win the contract.