Georgia Power is throwing dirt at the main vendors building two nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle by suing for a $29.3 million refund from backfilling two excavation sites there.
Georgia Power and a group of municipal and cooperative utilities are adding the reactors at the plant in Waynesboro. Georgia Power is responsible for $6.1 billion of the estimated $14 billion project.
The utilities and the vendors — Westinghouse and a subsidiary of the Shaw Group — have been engaged in a number of disputes, including two that have led to both sides taking legal action. This latest suit was filed last week in U.S. District Court in Augusta.
"When an issue can't be resolved through other interactions with the contractors — negotiation and mediation — we use these steps to resolve issues and protect customers," Georgia Power spokesman Mark Williams said in a statement.
The issue is over additional charges from having a shortfall of backfill, material excavated from a site and reused for filling. The material must meet standards set by federal nuclear safety regulators.
In this instance, the contractors have accused the utilities of saying there was enough soil at the site for backfill. Instead, the contractors had to spend additional time and money to compensate for a shortage of backfill. The utilities paid the contractors an additional $61 million to cover that time and work, the lawsuit said.
The contractors asked for an additional $67 million once the backfill project was completed in August 2011. The utilities paid $7 million. The contractors then asked for $58 million in May, of which the utilities paid $29.3 million, the lawsuit said.
When the utilities only paid $29.3 million, the vendors sued the utilities in federal court for the full amount. The lawsuit violates the terms of the sealed contract between the utilities and the vendors, which requires disputes to go through a formal mediation process before either side takes legal action. The vendors sued the utilities five days before mediation, the utilities' suit says.
Last week, the utilities sued the vendors for $29.3 million plus interest.
