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…