Georgia regulators gave the go-ahead for Southern Co. to finish the only new nuclear power under construction in the U.S. after it fell years behind schedule and costs soared to more than $25 billion, Bloomberg News reported. The Georgia Public Service Commission approved a revised plan by Southern’s Georgia Power and its utility partners to finish two delayed reactors at Plant Vogtle at higher costs with a unanimous vote on Thursday. The commission told Georgia Power it would have to agree to lower returns on the plant, a condition the company said that it would accept. The ruling provides a way forward for the Vogtle project, the first U.S. nuclear power plant to be licensed in three decades. Southern, which owns 46 percent of the project, said its estimated costs had soared to $12.2 billion after the plant’s contractor Westinghouse Electric Co. declared bankruptcy earlier this year.
