SCANA executives paid $1 million for a critical analysis of its nuclear failures.

Then they hid it from state regulators twice.

That’s what Gary Jones, a veteran nuclear power consultant, told a Public Service Commission hearing.

Jones said that SCANA and SCE&G executives intentionally buried the damaging Bechtel Corp. analysis they had paid for.

That analysis could have prompted the Public Service Commission to cancel the $9 billion nuclear fiasco, Jones said last week.

SCE&G executives gave state regulators overly optimistic and unrealistic projections before it and its minority partner, Santee Cooper, abandoned the $9 billion project in July 2017.

“The importance and impact of this failure to disclose cannot be overemphasized,” he said.

Jones is a key witness in an Office of Regulatory Staff effort to persuade the PSC to slash SCE&G’s nuclear-related rates, The State newspaper reported.

Jones testified for more than 5 hours at last week’s PSC hearing that may cut SCE&G rates and decide who will pay almost $5 billion in costs and bonds.

At stake also is PSC approval of Dominion Energy’s bid to buy SCANA which owns SCE&G.

In contrast, SCE&G lawyers accuse the ORS of scapegoating SCE&G for the $9 billion project’s failure.

They blame the failure on SCE&G‘s nuclear partner Santee Cooper for pulling out of the project and its reactor contractor Westinghouse which sought bankruptcy protection last year.

They appear to be trying to convince the PSC that SCE&G is blameless.

To questions by SCE&G attorney Jonathan Chally, Jones said he and other ORS employees knew of problems such as those Bechtel engineers found.

But, Jones said, ORS did not know Bechtel seriously criticized construction delays because it was removed from the final report.

Bechtel said in an early version that the 2 reactors might not be completed in time to qualify for billions of dollars in US tax breaks needed to offset the costs.

Jones agreed with the written testimony of 2 former SCE&G employees that its executives ignored projections that the construction project would cost $500 million more than its contractors estimated.

He said SCE&G did not reveal Bechtel’s findings.

“I was told by SCE&G, in response, that nothing new had been identified [by Bechtel] and that the assessment was done at a very high level and that the result wasn’t known by those in attendance, and that there would not be a written report,” he skid.

“We have subsequently learned … that this information was false.”

SCE&G knew its contractors provided an unrealistic figure but filed it with the PSC anyway, he said.

“SCE&G was successful in deceiving me as well as the PSC and ORS.”