Dive Brief:
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The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of South Carolina has served SCANA and its subsidiaries with a subpoena seeking documents relating to the company's abandoned V.C. Summer nuclear power project in South Carolina.
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The subpoena requires SCANA to produce a wide array of documents related to the project and comes on the heels of an internal audit released by the South Carolina governor's office that raised questions about when utility leaders knew of problems at the troubled plant.
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SCANA said it intends to cooperate with the government's investigation, but said it could give no assurances regarding the timing or outcome of the matter.
Dive Insight:
Ever since SCANA and its partner, Santee Cooper, abandoned the V.C. Summer nuclear project in July there has been a steady stream of repercussions.
Santee Cooper President and CEO Lonnie Carter resigned as a result of the failed project. South Carolina’s governor talked about putting Stanee Cooper, which is a state agency, up for sale. And both Santee Cooper and SCANA are facing lawsuits.
One of the key questions is how far in advance the utility partners knew of serious issues at the plant expansion project before pulling the plug.
Emails show that SCE&G and Santee Cooper were looking at the possibility that Westinghouse might declare bankruptcy as far back as June 2016. An internal audit prepared in February of that year outlines numerous problems at the project, including flawed engineering documents, frequent construction changes, high turnover and low morale.
Westinghouse declared bankruptcy in March 2017 and announced it is exiting the nuclear business this week.
Cost estimates for the Summer project eventually rose to $25 billion, more than double the original $11.5 billion estimate from 2008. The utilities have already spent $9 billion on the project.