More Summer work for Westinghouse-Shaw
29 July 2009
Westinghouse and Shaw have been awarded a long-term contract to provide maintenance and engineering services not only to the existing reactor at the V C Summer nuclear power plant in South Carolina, but also the two new units to be constructed there by the consortium.
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VC Summer plant (Image: Scana)
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The contract was awarded the consortium by South Carolina Electric and Gas Co (SCE&G), the principal subsidiary of Scana Corp, to provide nuclear maintenance, modification, refuelling outage and design engineering services to the existing 966 MWe pressurised water reactor (PWR) Unit 1 at Summer as well as the planned Units 2 and 3.
The contract is an extension of the relationship established by Westinghouse and Shaw to provide engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services for the two new Westinghouse AP1000 reactors scheduled for completion at Summer in 2016 and 2019, respectively.
The EPC contract for two 1117 MWe AP1000 reactors was signed in May 2008. SCE&G executed the EPC contract on behalf itself and its partner Santee Cooper, a South Carolina state-owned utility. SCE&G and Santee Cooper are joint owners and share operating costs and generating output of Summer Unit 1, which began commercial operation in 1984. SCE&G is the plant operator. A similar arrangement will apply to the two additional reactors, with SCE&G accounting for 55% of the cost and output and Santee Cooper the remaining 45%.
The estimated cost for the two new units upon completion is some $9.8 billion, of which SCE&G's share is about $5.4 billion and Santee Cooper's about $4.4 billion. Each company will also incur costs related to transmission facilities and certain financing costs related to the project.
SCE&G and Santee Cooper submitted an application for a combined construction and operating licence (COL) with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in March 2008. Following an approximate three-to-four-year review process, the NRC could issue the combined licence in 2011.
Westinghouse and Shaw have also been awarded an EPC contract by Georgia Power for two AP1000 reactors at the Vogtle site in Georgia. In addition, the Westinghouse and Shaw consortium has signed an EPC contract with Progress Energy for two AP1000 units at a new site in Levy County, Florida.