Exelon Moves to Pull Plug on Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant
May 30 2017 - 9:45AM
Dow Jones News
By Ezequiel Minaya
Exelon Corp. said Tuesday it has begun the process of closing
down its money-losing Three Mile Island nuclear power plant and
will complete the shutdown by September 2019 unless lawmakers make
changes to help the facility compete in an increasingly cut-throat
energy market.
Last week, the company warned that Three Mile Island, located in
Pennsylvania, didn't clear required capacity auction conditions. It
said the plant has continued to struggle because of low wholesale
power prices and energy policies the company said don't "value
zero-emissions nuclear energy." It said Three Mile Island hasn't
been profitable in five years.
Power producers bid in annual capacity auctions for long-term
contracts to supply electricity; Three Mile Island hasn't cleared
its past three annual auctions.
The company also said Tuesday that it will immediately take a
one-time charge ranging from $65 million to $110 million this year
in connection with the move.
The company said the facility employs 675 people while
contracting with an additional 1,500 workers. Exelon's Chief
Executive Chris Crane urged local legislators to help keep the
doors of the facility open by providing subsidies or similar
assistance.
In 1979, a partial core meltdown in one of the reactors of Three
Mile facility led to five days of panic and 14 years of expensive
clean-up. The incident didn't cause any fatalities but did have a
sizable impact on the winding-down of the nuclear power industry in
the U.S. in the 1980s and indelibly marked public perception of the
safety of nuclear plants.
Write to Ezequiel Minaya at ezequiel.minaya@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 30, 2017 10:30 ET (14:30 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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