A cooling tower at the partly constructed V.C. Summer site in Jenkinsville, S.C., in March.Kaoly Gutierrez/The Globe and Mail
Brookfield Asset Management BAM-T is partnering with U.S.-based startup The Nuclear Company as it takes another step toward reviving a multibillion-dollar South Carolina nuclear project.
New York-based Brookfield in a release on Monday said it is partnering with TNC to form a new unnamed company that will specialize in using nuclear reactor technology developed by Westinghouse Electric Co.
The asset manager acquired a 51-per-cent stake in Pennsylvania-based Westinghouse in 2022. Saskatchewan-based Cameco Corp. CCO-T owns the rest. Westinghouse has been a trailblazer in the nuclear sector for decades as an original equipment manufacturer, parts maker and engineering services provider.
Brookfield said the new company will be project manager for the Fairfield County, S.C., nuclear project known as V.C. Summer, calling it “one of the most execution-ready nuclear development opportunities in America.”
The project, owned by South Carolina utility Santee Cooper, is undertaking a feasibility study before it goes ahead. The newly created company will aid in the due-diligence process. Should the project move forward, a final investment decision is expected in 18 to 24 months.
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Privately held TNC was seeded in 2023. The South Carolina-based company was founded by Jonathan Webb, Kiran Bhatraju and Patrick Maloney. After a Series A funding round last year, TNC’s valuation was pegged at US$250-million. The company uses artificial intelligence for its Nuclear Operating System software, which it says transforms reactor construction into “a data-driven, predictable process.” Among its executives are Joe Klecha and Hernando A. Madroñero; both worked on a 2020s expansion at the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant in Georgia, a nuclear project that was initially constructed in the 1980s.
“Our team was built on the field of Vogtle and on some of the most complex energy projects in the world,” Mr. Klecha, TNC’s chief nuclear officer, said in a news release on Monday. “We know what it takes to deliver nuclear.”
Currently, nuclear energy is experiencing a global revival after suffering a steep decline in the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, which led to the meltdown of the Fukushima plant. Many nuclear projects were cancelled after the catastrophe.
Westinghouse, Brookfield and Cameco last year signed an agreement with the United States government to work on building as many as eight large nuclear reactors. The term sheet required the U.S. to arrange financing and facilitate permitting for reactors costing at least US$80-billion.
Wyatt Hartley, a managing partner at Brookfield, said in a statement that the partnership with TNC can potentially accelerate a nuclear resurgence in the U.S. by combining his firm’s global infrastructure development capabilities with TNC’s nuclear project delivery expertise.
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A past effort to develop V.C. Summer, without Brookfield’s involvement, did not go well. Construction of two partly completed AP1000 large-scale reactors at V.C. Summer was terminated in 2017 after billions of dollars in capital was spent.
More recently, two AP1000s were constructed at the Vogtle plant and began operating in 2023 and 2024. However, both incurred years-long delays and substantial cost overruns, ultimately costing US$34-billion combined.
There have been calls in recent years to build more nuclear reactors to meet growing electricity demands from the AI industry. Nuclear is also increasingly being pitched as a clean energy source because it doesn’t generate carbon emissions.
Still, worries persist over the challenges of the long-term storage of radioactive waste and the possibility of another accident at a power plant.
With a report from Matthew McClearn