Duke, Southern Company Announce Joint Project

Duke Power has chosen 2,022 acres near Gaffney, S.C., as the site for a proposed $6 billion, two-reactor nuclear plant, with rival Southern Co. of Atlanta to be a partner in the project.

The Cherokee County Council has offered Duke Power an incentive package including a 50 percent property tax credit and access to low-interest bonds to get the plant built there. The proposed plant could bring about 800 permanent jobs to the county.

Brew Barron, Duke Power's chief nuclear officer, says construction jobs would number about 1,000 at the peak of activity.

"A lot of the new plant design involves much more modular construction than the old plants," he says. "So the number would be something less than what you might have seen historically for plant construction."

It could take 10 to 12 years for the plant to become a reality, and neither utility is yet committed to construction. That decision will come later, Duke Power and Southern (NYSE:SO) say.

More from Reuters.

Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Power, Electricity, Environment, Energy, Politics, Duke Power, Southern Company

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March 22, 2006 at 8:52 PM

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