A blow to USA nuclear industry in abandonment of two new South Carolina reactors , already costing $9 billion

The two reactors, which have cost the utilities roughly $9 billion, remain less than 40 percent built. The cancellation means there are just two new nuclear units being built in the country — both in Georgia — while more than a dozen older nuclear plants are being retired in the face of low natural gas prices………

The two nuclear reactors still being built in Georgia are both AP1000s at the existing Vogtle nuclear power plant. Southern Company has agreed to take over construction of the Vogtle reactors in the aftermath of Westinghouse’s bankruptcy, but that project is also facing delays and overruns. The reactors will have to come online before 2021 to qualify for federal tax credits, although Congress is working on a bill to extend that deadline…..

Mr. Powell said the failure of the South Carolina project should not necessarily doom those advanced designs. But, he said, “This will still be a blow to nuclear supply chains, and it could make those new reactors [small modular nuclear reactors SMRs] incrementally more difficult to build.”