SCANA Corp. and Santee Cooper’s interest in building a new nuclear power plant won’t affect another ongoing push for a reactor near Aiken, an official with that effort said Wednesday.

NuStart Energy — a consortium of eight energy companies, including Charlotte-based Duke Energy — is eyeing the Savannah River Site for a new nuclear plant.

SRS was named one of six NuStart finalists in May. The group aims to pick two of the six for plants by Oct. 1. Earlier this month, the finalists submitted proposals to NuStart touting their advantages.

“This will not affect SRS in the NuStart competition,” said Nu-Start spokesman Carl W. Crawford. “NuStart will continue to consider the Savannah River Site among the six finalist candidate sites for one of two combined construction and operating licenses.”

Crawford called the SCE&G-Santee Cooper announcement “great news” for South Carolina.

“New, advanced nuclear energy plants are super-safe, clean and can generate affordable power dependably without air pollutants,” he said.

NuStart is one of three consortiums — not including SCE&G and Santee Cooper — pursuing a new nuclear plant in the United States, where no such plant has been built in decades. The U.S. nuclear industry has been at a virtual standstill since the Three Mile Island accident in 1979.

NuStart hopes to have two new nuclear plants operating as soon as 2015.

The Bush administration has taken a friendly tack toward the nuclear industry, offering to streamline the complicated licensing process and to offset associated costs.

SRS, which provided key components of the United States’ nuclear arsenal during the Cold War, is now a nuclear storage and research facility owned by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Reach Markoe at (202) 383-6023 or lmarkoe@krwashington.com