Brookfield in Advanced Talks for Massive Nuclear Project in South Carolina

By Lauren Thomas

Nuclear energy is having a comeback as big tech’s AI push stokes demand

Santee Cooper, a big power provider in South Carolina, is in advanced talks to sell two inactive nuclear reactors to Brookfield Asset Management that could power data centers underpinning the AI boom.

The provider’s board signed off on Brookfield’s BBU 1.99% proposal Friday, allowing the two parties to enter exclusive talks to complete terms over the coming weeks, Santee Cooper executives said.

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this year that Santee Cooper had tapped bankers to look for buyers for its nuclear assets. The efforts came as the massive push into artificial intelligence by tech giants such as Microsoft and Amazon.com boosted demand for clean energy to fuel data centers.

“Santee Cooper—along with the entire industry—has the opportunity to modernize the electric grid,” Santee Cooper Chief Executive Officer Jimmy Staton said in an interview.

Terms of the deal being discussed, expected to be valued in the billions, couldn’t be learned.

Santee Cooper is also holding talks with big tech companies and other entities that could be interested in buying the nuclear power that will be generated there, Staton said. Santee Cooper and Brookfield will need to find a construction partner and complete a year or more of due diligence before construction on the inactive plants can restart.

Construction of the pair of nuclear reactors at South Carolina’s sprawling V.C. Summer Nuclear Station was halted in 2017 after Santee Cooper and the plant’s then- co-owner, South Carolina Electric & Gas—now part of Dominion Energy—had already jointly spent around $9 billion.

Nuclear-project builder Westinghouse Electric, a contractor at V.C. Summer, filed for bankruptcy that year, dealing a blow to the plans. The two reactors had been among the first American nuclear power projects in years and were supposed to be operational by 2019.

Brookfield’s private-equity business bought Westinghouse out of bankruptcy in 2018, later selling the company to another Brookfield fund and Canadian uranium producer Cameco. That investment made Brookfield a natural partner for the work at V.C. Summer, Staton said.

Other big nuclear reactors went dark over the years amid competition from cheaper natural gas and renewable energy. But growing electricity demand has renewed interest in nuclear plants. Last year, Microsoft and Constellation Energy announced a deal to restart Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island.

Google parent Alphabet earlier this month announced a new $9 billion investment in South Carolina through 2027 , following other infrastructure investments across the U.S. Brookfield, which has more than $1 trillion in assets under management, struck an agreement in July with Google to provide as much as three gigawatts of hydroelectric power across the U.S.

The firm now owns Westinghouse in its global transition fund, which focuses on decarbonizing heavy industry and developing sources of clean energy. Earlier this month, it said it had raised a new $20 billion vehicle for the strategy.

Nuclear power projects can be costly and take years to pull off. Plant Vogtle, operated by Southern Co. in Georgia, is the nation’s largest nuclear plant. Adding two new reactors at the site cost more than $30 billion, more than twice the initial estimates. Work on the plant wrapped up last year.

Write to Lauren Thomas at lauren.thomas@wsj.com