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The two plant owners, in the midst of a five-year

July 24, 2017 by Paul Fletcher

The two plant owners, in the midst of a five-year contract extension, have said they will close the plant by March 2018, and that the agreement provides for a transition to full-scale production by 2018.

Vogtle's nuclear power plant at the Summer power plant in South Carolina, where the plants were built, and the other two reactors, in the middle of the country. The cost of the two reactors has steadily risen over the past year, and the cost of one is projected to rise to $19 billion by 2020. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Vogtle, which began work on the first nuclear power plant in 2008, has struggled to keep up with rising costs in parts of the US, including the cost of operating the new plant, where more than $4 billion of government support has been spent since 2006. Last year, the cost of the project, which includes the cost of servicing the plant and the construction of a new reactor, nearly doubled to $17 billion.

The cost of the project and any remaining funding for the project's costs are uncertain.

Vogtle spokeswoman Jill Siegel said in an email that it is evaluating the options, including whether to keep the nuclear power plants in operation to help keep costs down, and "there's no definitive timeline for when the process will be finished."

But when the contract is up for renewal in December, a spokesman for Vogtle said, the company is "firmly committed to our plan to build Vogtle and its sister reactors in Georgia" and vowed to fight any cuts.

For now, the two new reactor-owners remain committed to selling the plant to Westinghouse and other utility companies that have been buying and selling the plant in the past.

In a statement, Westinghouse said the company was "very pleased and disappointed," and would "continue to work with the Vogtle County residents and utilities to avoid any possible disruptions to their customers' access," and to provide additional information about its plans for the project.

The company said the contract would include "a range of services including the installation of new, high-efficiency, non-hazardous nuclear power plants."

The contract was signed last September by the two buildings to the south, in the small town of Othousek, which is one of the largest urban centers in Georgia.

Westinghouse is a utility-scale nuclear plant that has been the subject of an intense bidding war among utilities, utility companies, and utilities that are vying against each other