(Bloomberg) — South Carolina utility Santee Cooper is in talks with Brookfield Asset Management to revive a long-abandoned nuclear project as surging US demand for electricity renews interest in atomic energy.

Santee Cooper’s management plans to ask its board to approve a letter of intent for Brookfield to resume construction of two partially built reactors at the VC Summer site, Chief Executive Officer Jimmy Staton said during a board meeting on Friday.

The abandonment of VC Summer in 2017 marked a low point for the US nuclear industry, which has seen more than a dozen reactors shut down over the past decade or so amid increasing competition from cheaper natural gas and renewable energy. Now, demand for clean energy is driving enthusiasm for fission, with dozens of companies seeking to develop new reactor technologies and power plants.

But high costs continue to hinder the development of new reactors. VC Summer would feature traditional technology akin to the Vogtle project that was completed last year in Georgia, which came in about seven years late and roughly $20 billion over budget.

Staton didn’t provide financial details about the Brookfield negotiations. He said a key component was moving the burden away from the utility. 

“We think we’ve shifted the paradigm of how nuclear gets built here in the US,” Staton said. “Instead of the risk being absorbed by customers, it will be absorbed by the private entities seeking to build these assets.”

US electricity consumption is set to soar as technology companies build out power-hungry data centers supporting artificial intelligence applications. That’s driving interest in nuclear plants that can supply around-the-clock clean energy. Microsoft Corp. has agreed to pay above-market prices for power from a shuttered Three Mile Island reactor, which owner Constellation Energy Corp. expects to bring back into service in mid-2027. 

Santee Cooper and the VC Summer plant’s former co-owner, Scana Corp., halted construction of the reactors about eight years ago after estimated costs soared above $20 billion and contractor Westinghouse Electric Co. went bankrupt. Four former executives involved with the project, including Scana’s former CEO, were convicted in a federal criminal investigation that found the state’s ratepayers had been defrauded over delays and cost overruns.

Santee Cooper began soliciting bids to restart the project in January. Brookfield already has a connection to the site; it now owns a majority stake in Westinghouse, which designed the two reactors that have about 1,100 megawatts of capacity each. 

Staton reiterated that the restart is unlikely to lead to a repeat of the financial debacle. There were no Brookfield executives speaking at the meeting. 

“There are no additional risks for our customers, at all,” he said. “We won’t have to contribute any additional dollars.”

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