Westinghouse Asked Summer To Withhold Documents To Protect The Vogtle New Build

All I can say, when is the army of FBI ants going to show up a Vogtle? You got to know, the southern company is shitting their pants over the possibility.

I thought the NRC was treating my vogtle complaint extremely strangely over Summer's non qualified engineers and fraudulent safety parts installed at Summer NRC complaint, which is identical to the as yet disclosed Vogtle non qualified engineers and installed fraudulent safety parts. I told them Summer's problem are identical to the non disclosed Vogtle problems. A honest dummy could put it together!!!      

"SCE&G misled lawmakers about critical nuclear report, state agency says"

"The Regulatory Staff filings support concerns by lawmakers that SCE&G was not truthful with elected officials."

SCE&G executives misled S.C. legislators about why a report was commissioned to investigate troubles at the failing V.C. Summer nuclear expansion project, state regulators say.

In sworn testimony to lawmakers last fall, Kevin Marsh, then chief executive of SCE&G and its parent company SCANA, told legislators the Bechtel Corp. was hired to complete a study on problems at the ill-fated project to help prepare for a possible lawsuit against Westinghouse, the project's lead contractor.

Because the report — kept secret until after the V.C. Summer project collapsed — was part of an anticipated lawsuit, it could remain confidential from regulators, legislators and the public, utility officials told legislators last fall.

However, in filings late Wednesday with the S.C. Public Service Commission, regulators at the state Office of Regulatory Staff said the Bechtel report was put together to assess what was going wrong with the construction of two new nuclear reactors northwest of Columbia, not to support a lawsuit.

"There are substantial circumstances, and previously secret communications and documents that show the owners did not hire Bechtel" in anticipation of a lawsuit against Westinghouse, Regulatory Staff said in Wednesday's filing.

Matthew Richardson, an attorney for Regulatory Staff, said in a written statement, “Documents we have discovered indicate SCE&G has been more interested in protecting its profits than the customers.''

The Regulatory Staff filings support concerns by lawmakers that SCE&G was not truthful with elected officials as they held public hearings into the failure of the massive nuclear project.

The Regulatory Staff filings are part of the agency's effort to obtain thousands of pages of SCE&G records that it says could justify cutting power bills for 700,000-plus SCE&G customers, who still are paying for the failed nuclear project. Among those records are documents related to the Bechtel report. Wednesday's filings ask the PSC to force release of SCE&G records.

“One of my biggest concerns all along was that the utilities, SCE&G and Santee Cooper, were not being completely straightforward with us,’’ said state Sen. Shane Massey, R-Edgefield. “They were misleading us.’’

More: More secrecy at SCE&G? Utility won't give up V.C. Summer records, state agency says

State Rep. Peter McCoy, R-Charleston, said the Regulatory Staff findings reinforce concerns "that they did not want (information) getting out under any circumstances.''

Instead, SCE&G was scrambling to protect "their bottom dollar,' said McCoy, who — like Massey — was on a legislative committee that investigated the nuclear debacle.

SCE&G spokesman Eric Boomhower disputed criticism leveled at his company by the ORS.

"When the full story of Bechtel report is made public, it will be clear that the assertions by ORS are invalid and misleading,'' Boomhower said in an email Wednesday night. "Because of serious legal and regulatory limitations, we are not at liberty to debate these issues in the public arena at this time. We look forward to the time when the complete story will be available to everyone. ​''

In Wednesday's filings, Regulatory Staff cited a memo from the chief executive at SCE&G's junior partner in the V.C. Summer project, the state-owned Santee Cooper utility, saying the Bechtel report "never" was "intended to position (V.C. Summer's) owners for litigation."

The agency also cited another memo from Santee Cooper saying suing Westinghouse, V.C. Summer's lead contractor, would not accomplish much. That was because SCE&G and Santee Cooper had agreed they could recover no more than $150 million in a lawsuit unless they could prove fraud. When abandoned last July, the decade-long V.C. Summer expansion project already had cost far more — roughly $9 billion.

More: FBI agents flock to VC Summer site as part of probe into SC's failed nuclear project

Documents released Wednesday by Regulatory Staff indicate the Bechtel report was kept confidential at the insistence of Westinghouse. Westinghouse wanted protection from legal liability at another nuclear construction project that it was in charge of, the Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion effort in Georgia, records show.