The Nuclear Regular Commission has approved the combined operating license authorizing construction of two new AP1000 reactors for Virgil C. Summer nuclear plant. The decision is the second issued license in the U.S. since 1974, following the COL issued to Southern Nuclear's Vogtle nuclear plant on February 9th.
The $10 billion Scana project – like Georgia's Vogtle Plant – began several years ago with limited site preparation work and non-nuclear construction. Scana's subsidiary, South Carolina Electric & Gas, applied for a combined license to build the reactors at the plant in 2008. Its safety and environmental reviews, delayed as regulators reviewed the AP1000’s revised aircraft impact protection, were completed last year.
“About 1,000 workers have been engaged in early site preparation for our new nuclear project, which the Public Service Commission of South Carolina approved in February 2009,” said SCANA spokeswoman Rhonda O’Banion. “Preconstruction has included clearing and excavating land, building infrastructure such as roads and bridges, and constructing support buildings such as offices and warehouses."
“The V.C. Summer project will peak at about 3,000 long-term construction workers over three to four years,” she said. “The two 1,117-megawatt nuclear units, which are designed by Westinghouse and constructed by the Shaw Group, will then add as many as 800 permanent jobs when they start generating electricity.”
Construction is expected to take about five years per unit, with the first expected to generate electricity in 2016 and the second in 2019. The V.C. Summer plant, which went online in 1984, currently has one nuclear reactor.
On Thursday, SCANA also reported that it agreed to revise the cost of the project, agreeing to pay an additional $138 million for costs related to licensing delays, rock conditions at the site and plant design issues.