Once-secret records reveal pattern of costly mistakes at troubled nuclear project, Since 2009, companies working to build twin nuclear reactors in Fairfield County have made nearly three dozen changes to the project that drove up costs by about $325 million, according to recently released records and a state agency tracking the work’s progress.
The amount is a fraction of the escalating costs of the $14 billion V.C. Summer expansion project, but documents released May 24 by state utility regulators provide insight into why some of the costs have risen at a time of increasing concern by ratepayers.
The $325 million worth of changes represents the costs of additional work that was not expected when Westinghouse Electric and South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. launched the project about eight years ago. Some of the changes were to improve training for those who would operate the new reactors, while others were for better equipment and construction upgrades, the documents show.
SCE&G customers already have paid at least $1.4 billion for the reactor project. About 18 percent of a customer’s current bill goes toward the plant’s construction. Customers have been hit with nine rate hikes to finance the work, and critics predict efforts to raise rates further if the project continues…….http://www.thestate.com/news/local/article154261279.html
