Preliminary information received from the construction consortium building Summer 2 in South Carolina (Westinghouse and Chicago Bridge & Iron) suggest that the AP1000 reactor will not be substantially complete until late 2018, a year later than the completion date mentioned at the time of concrete pour in November 2013. The construction schedule of unit 3 would slip the same amount to be completed 12 months later. No cost estimates related to the delay have been released.

The Summer 2 project was the first of the four AP1000s currently being built in the USA to start pouring nuclear concrete, in April 2013. Two AP1000s are also being built at the Vogtle site in neighbouring Georgia for a utility consortium led by Southern Corp.

Customer South Carolina Electric & Gas, who made these comments in the announcement of a conference call on 11 August, said that it has not yet accepted this new schedule, and that these dates do not "reflect all efforts that may be possible to mitigate delay".
SCE&G said that it anticipates that the revised schedule and the cost estimate at completion will be finalized in the latter half of 2014. At that point, SCE&G would plan to reevaluate and reschedule its owners’ cost estimates and cash flow requirements.

In June SCEG announced the consortium had set the first of three containment rings in place. At the construction site in June, about 2500 consortium personnel and subcontractors were working.


Picture: Work on Summer 2 turbine building condenser in late spring 2014