Pact to Revive South Carolina Power Project Signals Trump’s ‘Nuclear Renaissance’ Gaining Traction

In the tentative deal, Brookfield will supply Santee Cooper with electricity and sell the rest to developments the new power source will draw to the region.

Santee Cooper’s two unfinished nuclear reactors at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station near Jenkinsville, S.C. Santee Cooper

A pending pact between South Carolina’s state-owned utility and a Canadian American corporation to complete nuclear reactors mothballed since 2017 could relieve Palmetto State taxpayers of billions of dollars in debt and be a precursor to similar public-private partnerships that will not leave utility customers on the hook for project cost overruns and failures.

Santee Cooper’s 14-member board agreed on Oct. 24 to negotiate with Brookfield Asset Management to resume development of two partially built Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear reactors at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station it shares with Dominion Energy near Jenkinsville, South Carolina.