V.C. Sumner reactor to be shut down for maintenance

Cayce-based S.C. Electric & Gas temporarily will shut down operations of a reactor at its V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in Jenkinsville on Friday for scheduled maintenance. The SCANA subsidiary will take down the 966-megawatt Unit 1 for refueling, following an 18-month operating cycle, the company said. This is the 20th outage for the nuclear power plant since it began commercial operation in 1984. About one-third of the plant’s 157 fuel assemblies are replaced and preventive maintenance is performed every 18 months, the company said. The company’s other generating plants will provide electric power for customers during the outage.

Heating costs to rise with forecast of a colder winter

NEW YORK Americans will pay more to heat their homes this winter as they feel something they didn’t feel much of last year: cold. Fuel prices will be relatively stable, but customers will have to use more energy to keep warm than they did a year ago, according to the annual Winter Fuels Outlook from the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration. Last winter was the warmest on record. This year temperatures are expected to be close to normal. Heating bills will rise 20 percent for heating oil customers, 15 percent for natural gas customers, 13 percent for propane customers and 5 percent for electricity customers, the EIA announced Wednesday.

Wal-Mart plans to open small stores faster

NEW YORK Wal-Mart Stores Inc. says it’s accelerating its expansion of small stores as it looks to compete with a variety of rivals, from dollar stores to drug chains. The company told investors at its analysts’ meeting Wednesday that it plans to have a total of 500 Neighborhood Market stores and a total of 12 Express stores by fiscal 2016. Bill Simon, president of Wal-Mart’s U.S. division says that Neighborhood Market stores have generated a 5 percent increase in revenue at stores opened at least a year for the first half of this year.

Feds warn of counterfeit air bags

WASHINGTON Car owners whose air bags have been replaced in the past three years may have had dangerous counterfeit bags installed, the Obama administration warned Wednesday. Only 0.1 percent of the U.S. vehicle fleet – about 250,000 cars on the road – are makes and models for which counterfeit airbags are known to be available, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in a statement. NHTSA is asking car owners to check a government website, www.Safercar.gov, for information.

The Associated Press contributed.