Company picked to jump start failed nuclear project tied to Columbia atomic fuel plant
The company chosen to jump start construction of the failed V.C. Summer nuclear expansion project is a multinational corporation that owns Westinghouse, the company that previously was involved in the shuttered expansion project and one that operates Columbia’s atomic fuel factory on Bluff Road.
Brookfield Asset Management acquired a majority interest in Westinghouse two years ago. The Westinghouse plant in Columbia makes fuel rods for nuclear power plants like the ones that would be constructed under Brookfield at the V.C. Summer site in Fairfield County.
Santee Cooper officials said Brookfield’s proposal for the failed project was substantially better than other bidders for the work, despite troubles Westinghouse had eight years ago with the costly V.C. Summer expansion project. The plan was to build two more reactors to complement an existing one operated by Santee Cooper and Dominion Energy’s predecessor, SCE&G, since the 1980s.
Santee Cooper, a state owned electric utility in South Carolina, said Friday it selected Brookfield to acquire the unfinished reactor project in Fairfield County, with the goal of completing it to meet future energy needs in the Palmetto State. Brookfield has more than $1 trillion in assets overall, employing more than 250,000 people across the world, Santee Cooper said at a meeting Friday in which its board picked Brookfield to pursue the failed reactor project restart.
“I don’t have any concerns about it,’’ Santee Cooper chief executive Jimmy Staton said Friday. “Westinghouse, while we were building the original projects, they were a different Westinghouse, quite frankly. Westinghouse under Brookfield, they are different operator owners of assets. They put money into Westinghouse.”
Staton said “Westinghouse will play a role, but it’s not going to be the same role it played once before..’’
Frank Knapp, who heads the S.C. Small Business Chamber of Commerce, called the choice of Brookfield ironic given it now owns Westinghouse, which played a role in the 2017 nuclear construction project failure. But Knapp said he’s not worried about that causing problems in restarting the project.
The project’s troubles were kept secret by utility executives who later faced criminal charges. Executives from Santee Cooper, as well as a Westinghouse executive ran afoul of criminal authorities.
“I’m not concerned that this Brookfield company has some relationship with the past problems at the V.C. Summer plant,’’ Knapp said. “The people who were responsible for that are gone.’’
Brookfield acquired Westinghouse after the company filed for bankruptcy. That bankruptcy led to the eventual abandonment of the V.C. Summer project in 2017. Rising and unexpected costs, and construction delays, also contributed to the Summer plant expansion failure north of Columbia.
Brookfield now employs about 2,000 people in South Carolina, most of them at the nuclear fuel plant south of Columbia.
Brookfield Asset Management is a company affiliated with Brookfield Renewable Partners, a division that focuses on energy. Overall last year, Brookfield Renewable owned some 8,300 megawatts of hydroelectric plants, 11,300 megawatts of wind projects and 7,200 megawatts of solar, according to a Westinghouse fact sheet. Websites show that Brookfield Asset is headquartered in New York and Brookfield Renewable is headquartered in Toronto.
“They’re a trillion dollar fund,’’ Staton said, noting that “ they’ve got $3 billion invested here and 2,000 employees, and we expect to see that grow dramatically as we finalize this agreement and start construction.’’
Brookfield’s partial ownership of the Westinghouse fuel plant in Columbia comes at a time when the company is expanding after years of environmental troubles. The fuel rod plant has caused extensive groundwater contamination and has had a series of accidents that threatened worker safety, but put together action plans to address those problems.
Outside of South Carolina, Brookfield has been criticized over human rights issues and its reliance on fossil-fuel burning energy facilities.
This story was originally published October 24, 2025 at 5:45 PM.
