EPC contract signed-but as an 'option'

摘要

The nuclear renaissance officially began on April 8-or did it? Georgia Power Company, a subsidiary of Southern Company (which is also the parent of Southern Nuclear Operating Company), and the Shaw Group, acting for itself and for Westinghouse Electric Company, announced on that day that they have signed an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for two AP1000 reactors to be built at Southern's Vogtle site, near Waynesboro, Ga. As nuclear projects have been developed over the past few years, vendors and customers have stated that license applications, forgings procurements, and other initiatives do not count as firm commitments to build reactors, but an EPC contract would indicate that commitment. In Vogtle's case, however, even a signed EPC contract cannot yet be regarded as that sort of commitment because of the ongoing process by the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) for the approval of Southern's request for new generating capacity.