Troubled $25 billion nuclear project gets OK to continue

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia's utility regulators are allowing construction to continue on two new nuclear reactors, despite massive cost overruns for the multi-billion-dollar project.

Thursday's decision by the state's Public Service Commission will shape the future of the nation's nuclear industry, partly because the reactors at Plant Vogtle were the first new ones to be licensed and to begin construction in the U.S. since 1978.

The project has been plagued by delays and spiraling costs, compounded when the main contractor filed for bankruptcy. Westinghouse Electric Co., the U.S. nuclear unit of Japan's Toshiba Corp., filed for bankruptcy in March.

The reactors, approved in 2012, were initially estimated to cost $14 billion.