Plant Vogtle

Georgia regulators will decide next February whether or not to continue with a troubled nuclear plant expansion project. The future of two new nuclear reactors has been up in the air since the lead contractor went bankrupt earlier this year.

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On Tuesday, the Georgia Public Service Commission voted to approve the schedule for a round of hearings on spending at Plant Vogtle. This is routine, every six months the utility presents its costs to the regulators.

Georgia Power says it wants to keep building two nuclear reactors, even as the cost to complete them has doubled since the project was proposed.

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The future of the nuclear expansion at Plant Vogtle has been up in the air since Westinghouse, the lead construction contractor, went bankrupt earlier this year. A similar project in South Carolina was scrapped this summer after utilities decided it didn’t make economic sense to continue with it.

Earlier this summer, the Japanese company Toshiba promised to pay more than $3.6 billion to Georgia utilities. One of those utilities said on Thursday it’s not sure the company will survive, let alone make the payments.

And without the payments, a nuclear power expansion project will be on even shakier ground than it is already.

In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Oglethorpe Power Corporation said it has doubts “about Toshiba's ability to continue as a going concern.”

Earlier this week, South Carolina utilities decided to scrap a nuclear power expansion project. Now, Georgia is the only state in the nation with nuclear reactors under construction.

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The future of the project here is up in the air, too.