The political firestorm surrounding the failed V-C Summer nuclear project intensified this week with the release of a private document containing the results of a critical audit of the management of the mammoth construction project.
In 2014, Bechtel Corp., a global construction and engineering firm, … was hired by Columbia based South Carolina Electric and Gas and Santee Cooper to provide them an outside analysis of why the construction of two nuclear reactors was running so far behind schedule, and so far over budget. The report cited numerous technical and management issues surrounding the project. When special House and Senate Committees studying the matter asked for the report, the utilities balked claiming it was confidential information. Gov. Henry McMaster then demanded that Santee Cooper, the state owned utility provide him a copy. Santee Cooper reluctantly did so over the Labor Day weekend and it didn’t take long for the report to find its way to the Associated Press.
