V.C. Summer nuclear plant shuts down for ‘unscheduled’ maintenance, Dominion says

COLUMBIA — The V.C. Summer Nuclear Plant has been shut down for nearly a week for what the operators said was unscheduled maintenance to repair a damaged steam line, company officials told The Post and Courier.

There is no danger to the public and no timeline for when the plant will return online.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy Information Administration, the Fairfield County-based nuclear plant ceased producing power overnight as last weekend’s snowstorm descended on the state Jan. 30, when EIA data showed statewide power demand at its highest point all winter.

The cause is a common one for nuclear plants. According to a statement from company officials, the facility was manually shut down as the result of a steam leak in the plant’s feedwater heater system, which reactor designers Westinghouse have described as a common cause of plant interruptions in those operations.

“Safety systems performed as expected, and operators acted quickly to stabilize the plant,” Matthew Long, a Dominion spokesperson, said in a Feb. 5 statement. “It remains offline.”

“Safety is always our top priority as operators work to return the unit to service,” he added. “There is no risk to the public.”

The Jenkinsville-based operation is one of several nuclear power plants across South Carolina and currently consists of one functional reactor. The site also features two unfinished reactors on premises where construction was paused amid a 2010s scandal that resulted in the abandonment of the project due to cost overruns.

Rights to develop the site now rest with the private investment company Brookfield, which purchased plant designers Westinghouse out of bankruptcy after the collapse of that project.

It is unclear what impact V.C. Summer shutting down has on the state’s power grid. But temporary plant shutdowns are fairly common. Winter Storm Elliott in 2022 notably resulted in numerous short-term outages that put substantial strain on the grid.

Notably, similar issues did not arise during the most recent storms, with minimal outages reported during last week’s snow and a previous mid-January ice storm.

While South Carolina imports two times more power than it produces, nuclear power currently makes up approximately 55 percent of the total energy production within state borders, with the vast majority of dayside energy production coming from natural gas and solar, according to EIA data.

South Carolina power producers could potentially import additional energy to make up for the loss in supply, which could potentially cost an indeterminate amount on users’ energy bills. What that amount would be, or how long that could last, is unclear.

“Dominion Energy does not provide details about outage durations as that is considered market-sensitive information,” Long said in a statement. “We continue to utilize our diverse fuel mix in South Carolina to meet customers’ needs until V.C. Summer has resumed normal operations.”