Southern Company Remains on Track to Build the United States' First New Nuclear Plant in 30 Years

The Southern Company (NYSE: SO), one of the largest electric and gas utilities in the United States, had a decent year in 2019. Solid operating performance and good earnings (noting that the impact of asset sales left earnings lower for the year) were nice to see when the company reported. However, that wasn't the news most investors wanted to hear. The big story, again, was progress at the company's Vogtle nuclear construction project.

It wasn't too long ago that the entire Vogtle project was at risk of being shut down following the bankruptcy of Westinghouse. That company was hired to run the Vogtle project, which it didn't do very well -- it was behind schedule and over budget when it threw in the towel as a company. Peer SCANA, which had also hired Westinghouse as a nuclear contractor on a big construction project, chose to cancel its nuclear build. That eventually led to financial and regulatory troubles and, not too long after that, SCANA was swallowed up by Dominion Energy.

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Source Fool.com