Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Power Plant, South Carolina

The Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Power Plant is the site of one of the largest partially built nuclear power plants in the nation, as well as an active plant. It is located in Jenkensville, South Carolina, adjacent to the Monticello Reservoir from which it’s active plant, Unit 1, draws its cooling water. Unit 1 is a pressurized water reactor, with an output capacity of 1,000MW. Its operating license was issued in 1982 to South Carolina Electric & Gas Company (SCE&G), a subsidiary of Scana Corporation. In 2008, SCE&G applied to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for combined construction and operating licenses for two new Westinghouse AP1000 Generation III+ reactors, in the hope of creating what would then become Units 2 & 3, at an estimated cost of $9.8 billion. In 2012, the NRC granted SCE&G the requested construction and operating licenses. Construction began in March of 2013. Since then, however, the project has been plagued with significant cost overruns and unanticipated construction delays, compounded by Westinghouse's decision to declare bankruptcy in 2017, due ironically to costs generated by these very same delays, as well as those associated with the ill-fated expansion of the Vogtle Nuclear Power Plant in Georgia. In 2017, faced with a revised cost estimate approaching $16 billion, as well as revised completion dates for Units 2 and 3 of 2022 and 2024 respectively, construction was stopped.