Southern to Pay $413 Million to Resolve Nuclear Plant Dispute

(Bloomberg) -- Southern Co. has agreed to pay at least $413 million to settle a dispute over construction costs at the Vogtle nuclear plant in Georgia after the budget ballooned. It also said the site’s last reactor is slated to go into service in 2024 after discovering a fault in coolant pump. 

The company will pay $308 million to Oglethorpe Power Corp., one of its partners in the project, according to a filing Friday. Southern also agreed to pay a portion of future costs, which it estimated at $105 million, plus two-thirds of costs that exceed that amount. 

The agreement resolves a legal fight over cost overruns at the project, which is years behind schedule. The total budget to build two reactors at the site has more than doubled to exceed $30 billion. Southern expects to take an after-tax charge of $114 million for the third quarter. 

Southern also said that the second reactor will go into service in the first quarter, after it discovered a motor fault in a reactor coolant pump. The other reactor went into commercial service in July. 

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