A major energy provider in South Carolina began accepting bids from buyers Wednesday to finish two nuclear reactors, hoping to capitalize on recent interest in the energy source from technology companies.
The utility company, Santee Cooper, wants to sell the reactors that were shut down in 2017 before they were half completed. Its decision comes as the technology industry, which is rapidly building power-hungry data centers, has begun to look to nuclear plants for their ability to provide a lot of electricity around the clock without releasing emissions responsible for climate change.
But delays and cost overruns have hampered nuclear power in recent decades in the United States. When Santee Cooper halted construction of the two reactors, at the VC Summer Power Plant, it left them less than 40 percent built and halted a project once touted as a notable step forward for nuclear power generation in the United States. The company and its partner, South Carolina Electric and Gas, spent about $9 billion on the unfinished reactors.
Santee Cooper said it is working with investment firm Centerview Partners to field offers from potential buyers through May 5. The company added that it does not intend to own or operate the reactors once they are completed.
“We are seeing renewed interest in nuclear power, fueled by advanced manufacturing investments, demand for AI-driven data centers, and the industry’s zero-carbon technology goals,” Santee Cooper CEO Jimmy Staton said in a statement.
Initially proposed in 2007 — at a time when industry officials were anticipating a resurgence in nuclear power — the South Carolina project was facing a changing energy landscape. Before you stop A decade later. Improvements in energy efficiency drove demand for electricity across the country during those years, while the fracking boom flooded the country with cheap natural gas, much of which is burned in power plants to generate electricity.
VC Summer owns a large, operational nuclear reactor built in 1982 and operated by Dominion Energy, a Richmond, Va., utility that bought South Carolina Electric & Gas in 2019. That reactor is not part of the sale of the two companies. Unfinished reactors owned by Santee Cooper.
The energy landscape has changed again in recent years. Several tech giants, including Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet, have said they will help fund the construction of a nuclear reactor to support their expansion into artificial intelligence.
The federal government has also stepped in to support a resurgence of interest in nuclear energy. In September, the Department of Energy He said it was finished A $1.52 billion loan guarantee to help a company restart a shuttered nuclear plant in Michigan. Congress and the Biden administration have offered billions of dollars in subsidies to keep older nuclear plants running and build new reactors. While President Trump has opposed and sought to undo many of former President Joseph Biden Jr.’s energy and climate policies, he has said he supports nuclear energy.
Globally, the demand for nuclear energy has been growing in recent years alongside Growing concern about climate change. Nuclear reactors can generate electricity without emitting global warming greenhouse gases. But environmentalists and some other critics point out that building the reactors could be very expensive and that the United States has not yet settled on a strategy for long-term storage of the radioactive waste produced by the reactors. Some other countries have developed places for such storage.
