Nuclear Disaster Results in Huge Mechanic’s Liens

Fallout of Westinghouse Bankruptcy 

Court records showed that on Friday, May 12, 2017, two more mechanics liens were filed in South Carolina and Georgia on Westinghouse owned nuclear facilities. One lien, in the amount of $6,676,498.47, was filed by Vigor Works, LLC, who performed work and provided materials for reactors.  This lien was filed with relation to the V.C. Summer facility in Fairfield County, South Carolina.

The other lien, also filed by Vigor Works in the amount of $8,909,031.64, was filed on Project Vogtle in Burke County, Georgia. Westinghouse Electric Company, a well known and historic company, now owned by Toshiba, was the general contractor on both project, but filed for bankruptcy on March 29, 2017 after several apparent missteps that resulted in a dramatic increase in the budgets for the proposed nuclear facilities.

While Westinghouse was attempting to continue the construction of the nuclear plants, on Monday, May 15, 2017, it was announced that Southern Co. would take over the continued construction of the Vogtle project. The V.C. Summer Facility is still operated by South Carolina Electric & Gas Co., via an agreement with Westinghouse, but SCE&G is apparently still looking for a contractor to take over the project.Nevertheless, the liens filed by Vigor Works only add to the projects’ woes: on May 2, 2017, Aecon Industrial filed a mechanic’s lien in the amount of $10.7 million, and Fluor Enterprises filed a $60 million lien in March, 2017.