South Carolina utility Santee Cooper is looking for a buyer for its partially built nuclear power plant that was abandoned in 2017 after delays and soaring costs, the utility announced Wednesday.
The twist for the long-abandoned project that put several utility executives behind bars for fraud is the latest sign that the boom in artificial intelligence and power-hungry data centers could lead to a revival of the nuclear power industry, which has struggled to expand in the U.S. for years because of its high price tag.
Microsoft penned a deal to restart the shuttered Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania last year, while another developer is working to restart the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan. And another over-budget and long-delayed nuclear plant, Vogtle Unit 4, came online last year, prompting calls from the Biden administration and nuclear advocates to reexamine the viability of large nuclear plants in the U.S.
“We are seeing renewed interest in nuclear energy, fueled by advanced manufacturing investments, AI-driven data center demand, and the tech industry’s zero-carbon targets,” Santee Cooper President and CEO Jimmy Staton said in a statement.
