- Santee Cooper Plans to Bring Back V C Summer from the Dead
- Duane Arnold Tagged for Possible Restart
- Oklo and RPower Join Forces to Power Data Centers
- TerraPower Airs Plans to Meet Data Centers’ Demand for Power
- General Atomics Successfully Tests Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Reactor Fuel
- DARPA Nuclear Rocket Delayed Due to Regulatory Challenges
- Physicist Airs Reality Check for Fusion Developers
Santee Cooper Seeks Proposals For Completion Of Abandoned Summer Nuclear Power Project
- South Carolina utility says move is response to interest nationally in new reactors to help meet growing electricity needs for data centers and manufacturing
The construction phase is preceded by four years of complex and expensive regulatory reviews with the NRC to get the combined construction and operating license issued under the agency’s Part 52 regulations. In all the better part of a decade-and-a-half goes by before customers see any electricity from the plant.
This is why there is so much interest in bringing previously shut down plants back online. Witness the similar activities at Holtec’s Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan and Constellation’s nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. Now comes a new strategy to cut down time to market which is to complete a partially built pair of Westinghouse 1,150 MW AP1000 PWRs at the V C Summer nuclear site in South Carolina.
South Carolina’s state-owned utility Santee Cooper, South Carolina’s largest electricity utility, has launched a process seeking proposals that could lead to the revival of the abandoned V C Summer nuclear power station project.
Santee Cooper is, in effect. taking on revival of one of the most significant failures to complete a reactor project in the history of the US nuclear industry. In short, metaphorically speaking, it is trying to bring a $10 billion fiasco back from the dead.
The company said in a statement that it is looking for proposals to acquire and complete, or propose alternatives, for two partially constructed nuclear units at the site. The utility said it has no plans to own the units.
Santee Cooper cited significant interest in repowering closed or cancelled nuclear units to shorten project timelines, as well as federal incentives for these projects. Santee Cooper has engaged US investment banking firm Centerview Partners to conduct a request for proposal (RFP) seeking parties interested in acquiring the project and related assets, and potentially completing one or both units or pursuing alternative uses of the assets.
The banking firm lists its expertise as being in M&A, independent board committees, shareholder activism, debt and equity financing and restructuring.
Factors contributing to the utility’s decision to launch an RFP process include a need for new generating capacity, driven by rapid growth of data centers, the onshoring of manufacturing, and the retirement of fossil-fired plants.
Utility president and chief executive officer Jimmy Staton said, “Considering the long timelines required to bring new nuclear units online, Santee Cooper has a unique opportunity to explore options for Summer Units 2 and 3 and their related assets that could allow someone to generate reliable, carbon emissions-free electricity on a meaningfully shortened timeline. We are seeing renewed interest in nuclear energy, fueled by advanced manufacturing investments, AI-driven data center demand, and the tech industry’s zero-carbon targets.”
Santee Cooper added in its press statement that from a competitive view of time to market for new generating capacity, V C Summer’s “unique position” as the only site in the US that could deliver 2,200 MW of nuclear capacity “on an accelerated timeline.”
Stanton also said the utility “has no plans to own or operate those units”, but he added that the process could help identify “another entity with a viable alternative” that would benefit the company’s customers, support economic development and provide value to the state of South Carolina.
The utility noted that its location is within the nuclear security “envelope” of the larger V.C. Summer station site, which was always intended to hold multiple units. Federal support for nuclear construction including the availability of tax credits and loan guarantees is another positive factor.
A few years ago representatives from Ukraine’s EnergoAtom toured the site with the idea of buying some of the equipment and supplies ordered for the reactors but never installed at the construction site. However, it isn’t clear if the discussions ever moved beyond a visit to to the V C Summer site to kick the tires.
Multiple Points of Failure in Termination of the Original Project
The project to build two new Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at Summer had cost nearly $10 billion before it was shut down in 2017, sparking multiple lawsuits involving investors and ratepayers.
The decision to abandon the project came after the bankruptcy filing of Westinghouse Electric, the project’s contractor. At the time, Westinghouse, then a unit of Japan’s Toshiba Corp, said it had over $6 billion in debt.
In January 2018 Dominion Energy said it would buy SCANA in a $14.6 billion deal that would include $1.3 billion in refunds to SCE&G utility customers.
Prior Coverage on this blog
News About What Went Wrong at V C Summer Gets Worse
Utilities Pull the Plug on AP1000s at V C Summer
Spooked by Scana failure, Duke calls its quits on Lee
Four Criminal Felony Convictions
In addition to the failure of Westinghouse to manage the project, which led to its being forced into bankruptcy, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, four executives, two from SCANA and two from Westinghouse, were convicted of felonies related to their criminal wrongdoing in managing the project.
U.S. Attorney Adair Ford Boroughs for the District of South Carolina said in a press statement, in November 2024, “the defendants in this case did not simply make a corporate error. They intentionally misled, and their dishonesty in the V.C. Summer project caused a great deal of harm to the people of South Carolina.”
- Jeffrey Alan Benjamin, 62, was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison after pleading guilty to causing SCANA, a publicly-traded company, to keep false records in connection with the failed V.C. Summer nuclear construction project in Jenkinsville, South Carolina.
- Benjamin served as senior vice president for new plants and major projects at the Westinghouse Electric Company and directly supervised all new nuclear projects worldwide during the V.C. Summer project. Westinghouse was the primary contractor on the project, tasked with designing and building two new nuclear units.
- Benjamin is the fourth and final defendant to be sentenced in this multi-year investigation. Three other executives were previously convicted and have served their respective sentences.
- Kevin B. Marsh, former SCANA Corporation CEO and chairman of the board of directors, was sentenced to two years in federal prison and ordered to pay a $5 million penalty after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.
- Stephen Byrne, former executive vice president of SCANA and former chief operating officer of South Carolina Electric & Gas Company (SCE&G) was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison and ordered to pay over $1 million after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.
- Carl Churchman, former Westinghouse Electric Corporation vice president and the project director of the V.C. Summer Nuclear project, was sentenced to six months of home detention after pleading guilty to lying to federal investigators.
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Duane Arnold Tagged for Possible Restart
- NextEra says it may reopen Iowa’s Duane Arnold nuclear plant by 2028
NextEra CEO John Ketchum in an earnings call characterized the restart of the 600 MW Duane Arnold nuclear plant near Palo, Iowa, is a relatively speedy option for meeting the nation’s rapidly growing energy demand, which he said is expected to climb “80% over the next five years and six-fold over the next 20 years.”
NextEra Energy Resources filed notice with Nuclear Regulatory Commission that it will request a licensing change at Duane Arnold, “an important first step in establishing the regulatory pathway to restore the facility’s operating license and potentially restart plant operations as early as the end of 2028.”
Ketchum declined to say how much it would cost to restart Duane Arnold, adding that Florida-based NextEra has “more work to do,” including holding discussions with potential energy customers.
“I’m not going to put a cost estimate out there that would hurt our negotiating position.”
According to the Des Moines Register newspaper, Iowa has become a data center hub, with companies attracted by the state’s wealth of low-cost, clean energy. Since 2007, companies like Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Apple have invested $12.3 billion in large data center projects in Iowa, which gets 60% of its energy from wind, the largest share of any state.
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Oklo and RPower Join Forces to Power Data Centers
- Partnership Would Deliver a Phased Power Strategy Combining Natural Gas and Advanced Nuclear
Oklo Inc. (NYSE: OKLO) has signed a nonbinding memorandum of understanding with RPower, a leading provider of onsite prime and backup power solutions, to deploy a phased power model for data centers. This model combines immediate energy deployment using RPower natural gas generators with a transition path to clean, reliable energy from Oklo’s Aurora nuclear reactors, eliminating reliance on diesel generators and supporting scalable, sustainable operations.
Once implemented, the phased power model is expected to work in three stages.
Initially, RPower’s natural gas generators will be deployed within approximately 24 months, depending on site conditions, to meet immediate power needs for data centers that the local utility cannot serve.
Next, Oklo’s advanced nuclear power solutions, the Aurora powerhouses, will be added to these sites as they become commercially available, providing emissions-free energy. Oklo did not specify the power ratings for the reactors it would supply to RPower not the amount of electricity the data centers would need from gas.
Finally, over time, the Aurora powerhouses will supply the majority of the energy needed, transitioning the RPower natural gas generators to backup and resilience roles and allowing RPower to serve as a Good Grid Citizen by providing extra power to the local grid in times of need.
Oklo and RPower said in press statements they intend to work together to deploy this phased power strategy on behalf of their respective existing customers as well as new customers who can benefit from this unique combination of immediately deployable natural gas generation with the ability to transition to nuclear energy solutions in the future.
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TerraPower Airs Plans to Meet Data Centers’ Demand for Power
- TerraPower and Sabey Data Centers Developing Strategic Collaboration Agreement for Wide-Scale Deployment of Natrium® Plants
- The companies have entered a multi-layered Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to explore deploying Natrium plants1 to support growing data center demand.
TerraPower and Sabey Data Centers (SDC), a data center developer, owner, and operator, announced a memorandum of understanding to develop a strategic collaboration agreement to leverage advanced nuclear Natrium plants into SDC’s current and future data center operations.
TerraPower broke ground on America’s first advanced nuclear project in 2024, near a retiring coal facility in Wyoming. The strategic collaboration includes exploring new Natrium plants in the Rocky Mountain region, as well as Texas, to support growing power needs for SDC-owned data centers.
No timeline was announced for implementation nor was a dollar value of the deal indicated in the press statement. TerraPower has pushed back the start of its first Natrium advanced reactors to 2030 due to shortages of the HALEU nuclear fuel it will need to operate and generate electricity.
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General Atomics Successfully Tests Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Reactor Fuel
General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems (GA-EMS) announced that it has successfully executed several significant high-impact tests at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) to advance the development of Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP) reactor technology for rapid, agile cislunar transportation and deep space missions, including human missions to Mars.
Conceptual Image of DRACO Nuclear Thermal Propulsion Spacecraft. Image: GA-EMS
Tests were conducted in collaboration with NASA to verify the ability of the GA-EMS design-specific nuclear fuel to meet the high-performance specifications required to withstand the extreme operational conditions expected in space.
GA-EMS executed several high-impact tests at NASA’s MSFC in Huntsville, AL. The nuclear fuel was tested with hot hydrogen flow through the samples and subjected to six thermal cycles that rapidly ramped-up to a peak temperature of 2600 K (Kelvin) or 4220° Fahrenheit.
Each cycle included a 20-minute hold at peak performance to demonstrate the effectiveness of shielding the fuel material from erosion and degradation by the hot hydrogen. Additional tests were performed with varying protective features to provide further data on how different material enhancements improve performance under reactor-like conditions.
“To the best of our knowledge, we are the first company to use the compact fuel element environmental test (CFEET) facility at NASA MSFC to successfully test and demonstrate the survivability of fuel after thermal cycling in hydrogen representative temperatures and ramp rates,” said Dr. Christina Back, vice president of GA-EMS Nuclear Technologies and Materials.
“We’ve also conducted tests in a non-hydrogen environment at our GA-EMS laboratory, which confirmed the fuel performed exceptionally well at temperatures up to 3000 K, which would enable the NTP system to be two-to-three times more efficient than conventional chemical rocket engines. We are excited to continue our collaboration with NASA as we mature and test the fuel to meet the performance requirements for future cislunar and Mars mission architectures.”
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DARPA Nuclear Rocket Delayed Due to Regulatory Challenges
According to a report in Aviation Week DARPA’s DRACO’s nuclear thermal rocket engine project has had a major schedule setback. The testing requirements for nuclear reactors are causing delays in the launch timeline. The 2027 launch date for the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) is on indefinite hold.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and NASA were planning to demonstrate this propulsion technology in space by 2025. However, as the timeline for completing the preliminary design review has not yet been set, it isn’t clear what the new milestone will be set for a launch date
The teams are now dealing with complex regulatory challenges. Getting approval for nuclear testing in space requires extensive documentation, multiple safety reviews, and detailed contingency plans. DARPA told Aviation Week it is examining design refinements meant to improve ground processing safety and enhance on-orbit data collection. These requirements weren’t fully anticipated in the original project timeline.
Despite these obstacles, Aviation Week reports the project teams remain committed. They’re working closely with regulatory bodies to address safety concerns while maintaining the core mission objectives.
The goal of the Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations (DRACO) program is to demonstrate a nuclear thermal rocket (NTR) in orbit. NTRs use a nuclear reactor to heat propellant to extreme temperatures before exhausting the hot propellant through a nozzle to produce thrust. Compared to conventional space propulsion technologies, NTRs offers a high thrust-to-weight ratio around 10,000 times greater than electric propulsion and two-to-five times greater specific impulse (i.e. propellant efficiency) than in-space chemical propulsion.
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Physicist Airs Reality Check for Fusion Developers
In a published letter on 01/22/25 to the editor of the Guardian Newspaper in the UK, Luca Garzotti, a physicist working at the Culham Center for Fusion Energy, writing solely on his own behalf, said that “Before we start talking about nuclear fusion via magnetic confinement as a commercially viable source of energy, five main challenges have to be met by the scientific community, each one of them a potential showstopper.”
We have to demonstrate:
1) That we can run a burning plasma for hours (if not in steady state) with Q=40 (Q being the ratio between power coming from the fusion reactions and power used to heat the plasma) without disruptions. If all goes well, at some point in the future, the ITER fusion project your article mentions will run a burning plasma with Q=10 for about 10 minutes.
2) That we can handle and exhaust the heat escaping from such a plasma and impinging on the first wall of the confining device.
3) That we can breed in the blanket of a power plant more tritium than we burn in the plasma. (Tritium is not readily available in nature and must be produced.)
4) That the materials used to build such a plant can withstand the neutron fluence coming from the burning plasma without losing their structural properties and without becoming excessively radioactive.
5) That a fusion reactor can be operated reliably and maintained by remote handling, minimizing the downtime needed for maintenance.
These are massive scientific and technological challenges, the solution of which (despite progress being made) is not in the near future. The reward for finding a solution will be immense and therefore research must continue with humility and tenacity, but there is no room for over optimistic or triumphalist statements, which can only undermine the credibility of the scientists and engineers working on the problem.
According to his online profile, Luca Garzotti has worked at the Tokamak Science Department, Culham Centre for Fusion Energy for the past 19 years. Luca does research in Nuclear Physics, Computational Physics and Plasma Physics.
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