Failed nuclear contractor (Westinghouse) signs $21M deal, working with feds

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Failed nuclear contractor signs $21M deal, working with feds

By MEG KINNARD
August 31, 2021

The chief contractor at a failed multibillion-dollar project to build two nuclear reactors in South Carolina has agreed to pay more than $20 million as part of a cooperation agreement with federal authorities probing the fiasco.

Under an agreement announced Monday by Acting U.S. Attorney Rhett DeHart, Westinghouse Electric Co. will contribute $5 million to a program intended to assist low-income ratepayers affected by the project’s failure. Another payment of $16.25 million will be due before July 1, 2022.

The company will also be required to cooperate with federal investigators still probing the company’s role in the 2017 debacle, which cost ratepayers and investors billions and left nearly 6,000 people jobless.

Westinghouse was the lead contractor on the construction of two new reactors at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in Jenkinsville, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Columbia. South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. parent company SCANA Corp. and state-owned utility company Santee Cooper spent nearly $10 billion on the project before halting construction in 2017 following Westinghouse’s bankruptcy.

The collapse of the V.C. Summer project spawned multiple lawsuits, some by ratepayers who said company executives knew the project was doomed and misled consumers and regulators as they petitioned for a series of rate hikes. Three top-level executives have already pleaded guilty in the multi-year federal fraud investigation. A fourth has been charged and is expected in federal court Tuesday.

-snip-

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/business-13d32de4e9646fd9d8cbb9588b6b9833


FILE - This Sept. 21, 2016 file photo shows Unit one of the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station near Jenkinsville, S.C. Federal authorities say a fourth executive has been charged for his role in a failed multibillion-dollar project to build two nuclear reactors at the V.C. Summer site in South Carolina. Former Westinghouse executive Jeffrey A. Benjamin faces multiple felony counts of fraud, according to an indictment filed Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton, File)

[sprinkleeninow]

1. Multi-billion with a B...

[multigraincracker]

2. Fraud.

Jail time?

[Faux pas]

3. Kickin' with gusto!

[NNadir]

4. The biggest failure, nonetheless, is the failure of people to stop demonizing nuclear energy.

Last edited Thu Sep 2, 2021, 08:03 AM - Edit history (1)

Anti-nuclear stupidity is the reason we saw 420 ppm of the dangerous fossil fuel waste carbon dioxide in the planetary atmosphere this spring; the reason the entire West Coast of the North American continent has been riddled with fire, the reason that six to seven million people die each year from air pollution, etc.

My son, a materials science engineer, just announced to me that he will be seeking to get his Ph.D. in nuclear engineering. I am powerfully honored by his decision.

He's highly intelligent, unlike the quibbling assholes who think "nuclear waste is too dangerous" but "fossil fuel waste is OK." He's more intelligent than the quibbling fools who complain about uranium mining (which is now unnecessary by the way) but are willing to tear vast quantities ores out the earth, transported by diesel trucks, and are now speaking of tearing the shit out the of the seafloor to build wind turbines almost all of which will be landfill in less than 20 years. He's more intelligent than the quibbling idiots who complain about the costs of building nuclear plants, because they have worked their entire useless adult lives to destroy nuclear infrastructure, but don't give a shit for the future generations who will all have to pay for the damage done by hydraulic fracturing while we all waited, like Godot, for the grand renewable nirvana that did not come, is not here, and won't come.

The damage done by the failure to embrace nuclear energy now amounts to tens of trillions of dollars, and still, we can all cry over a few tens of millions because every damned nuclear plant on this planet is a "First of a Kind Engineering" issue because of endless appeals to fear, ignorance, and contempt on the part of people who are neither educated enough, moral enough, unselfish enough to hold any right to feel contempt for anyone.

History will not forgive us, nor should it.