New reactors slated for South Carolina by 2016
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Federal regulators have approved plans to build two new nuclear reactors to generate electricity in South Carolina.
The project is only the second to receive federal approval in a generation. Last month, the NRC voted to issue a permit to Atlanta-based Southern Co. to build and operate two new reactors at its Plant Vogtle site south of Augusta, Ga., the first such approval since 1978.
During a brief meeting in Washington on Friday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission voted to allow South Carolina Electric & Gas to build two 1,100-megawatt reactors at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station near Columbia.
The South Carolina reactors would be jointly owned and operated with state-owned utility Santee Cooper. The first is expected to be on line by 2016; the second in 2019.