A nuclear executive must have faith in his attorneys.

Westinghouse Electric senior vice president of new plants & major projects Jeffrey Benjamin is willing to take his chances in court.

He is fighting criminal fraud charges in Lexington County-based SC Electric & Gas’s $10 billion nuclear fiasco.

Unlike Westinghouse colleague Carl Churchman and 2 SCE&G executives, he has decided not to plead guilty.

“This is a risky move to go to trial,” said Savannah River Keeper Tom Clements, who for the Friends of the Earth, opposed nuclear rate hikes

“The jury selection will be from those ripped off by the failed nuclear construction project and who are still paying for it on their monthly electric bills.”

Benjamin is slated to appear before federal Judge Mary Geiger Lewis at a pretrial conference Nov. 15 at the Matthew J. Perry Federal Courthouse in Columbia.

A federal grand jury has indicted him for fraud for his role in the failed project Westinghouse was building for SCE&G and its partner, Santee Cooper, a taxpayerowned utility.

The fiasco cost thousands of Lexington County ratepayers of SCE&G and Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative millions of dollars in rate increases.

Federal investigators say Benjamin and nuclear construction manager Carl Churchman of Westinghouse, along with Kevin Marsh and Stephen Byrne of SCE&G, lied about a conspiracy to hide the failing project over more than 10 years.

Marsh, the former CEO of SCANA which owned SCE&G, is to be sentenced at 10 am Thursday, Oct. 7, at the federal courthouse in Columbia.

Marsh faces 2 years in federal prison and fines of $5 million if he fails to cooperate with federal investigators seeking indictments on others who may have engaged in the conspiracy.

Westinghouse has agreed to pay $21.5 million for its role in the fiasco.