SCE&G has begun breaking down huge construction cranes as it moves to abandon the failed V.C. Summer nuclear construction site by the end of this year.

Taking down the cranes is part of final company activities on the property, SCE&G officials told the state Public Service Commission during a meeting Thursday in Columbia.

Efforts to button up the site include:

  • Securing partially installed equipment
  • ▪  Filling in trenches and excavations, while completing some ditches that were only partially done
  •  ▪ Removing temporary construction trailers and pulling equipment down from platforms.
  • ▪ Collecting hazardous waste created during construction
  • ▪  Preparing to auction off some of the site’s equipment
  • ▪  Cleaning scaffolding from building roofs
  • ▪ Planting grass in areas that had been cleared but never developed

Perhaps the most visible work is disassembling the cranes that towered over the site. The cranes were easy to see from lakes and highways surrounding the plant. Vendors were to pick up the cranes and other material not owned by SCE&G, said Todd Johnson, a general manager with SCANA.

“We have a number of items that we are putting out in storage areas for pickup,’ he told the PSC.

The V.C. Summer nuclear site is being shut down by SCE&G and partner Santee Cooper after the companies spent $9 billion on the effort over a decade. The companies agreed July 31 to quit the project, leaving 5,000 people out of work. Customers were irate because they had been charged $1.7 billion for the work. SCE&G has indicated it may seek more from customers to help pay for the rest of the project.

SCE&G and Santee Cooper said they could no longer afford to build the project as costs escalated and the site’s chief contractor, Westinghouse, filed for bankruptcy.


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