Exelon

Nuclear plant closures will represent the majority of generating capacity retirements in 2021, the Energy Information Administration forecast Tuesday. The loss of nuclear generating capacity — a total of 5.1 gigawatts — amounts to 56% of the expected capacity loss for the coming year, the Department of Energy organization said.  Exelon’s Dresden and Byron nuclear […]

Nuclear plant closures will represent the majority of generating capacity retirements in 2021, the Energy Information Administration forecast Tuesday. The loss of nuclear generating capacity — a total of 5.1 gigawatts — amounts to 56% of the expected capacity loss for the coming year, the Department of Energy organization said. Exelon’s Dresden and Byron nuclear […]

A federal judge denied Holtec’s plea for oral arguments in a lawsuit the company filed against Lacey Township in September this week. The company’s request for a temporary restraining order allowing it to resume a dry run and practice demonstrations for its spent fuel campaign at the shuttered Oyster Creek power plant will be decided […]

North Wind Site Services has won an $11.8 million contract to remove the largest building at the radioactively contaminated Luckey Site in Ohio, under the Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP). In a press release Friday, the Army Corps said the Production Building must be taken out to allow for […]

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has begun procurement for a contractor to help prepare for a major cleanup job at the Niagara Falls Storage Site in New York state under the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP). The Army branch ultimately intends to hire an architectural and engineering services provider for the […]

Exelon Generation Co. on Thursday said it would retire two nuclear power plants in Illinois over the next 15 months, years or even decades ahead of the expiration of their federal licenses. The Byron Generating Station in Ogle County will shut down in September 2021, followed by the Dresden Generating Station in Grundy County in […]

Exelon Generation Co. on Thursday said it would retire two nuclear power plants in Illinois over the next 15 months, years if not decades ahead of the expiration of their federal licenses. The Byron Generating Station in Ogle County will shut down in September 2021, followed by the Dresden Generating Station in Grundy County in […]

Thirteen nuclear power reactors were permanently retired in 2019, including two in the United States, according to an industry performance report issued Tuesday by the World Nuclear Association. “This is the joint second highest number of reactors shut down in a single year,” the report says. “However, for the majority of these reactors, 2019 was […]

The commonwealth of Massachusetts is in the late stages of negotiations to lift its objections over the license transfer and sale of the retired Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was scheduled Thursday afternoon to rule on petitions for intervention and hearings in the license transfer application, filed in February 2019 by the […]

By John Stang The 2019 sale of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts drove a major revenue drop that put Entergy Wholesale Commodities’ income into the red for the first quarter of 2020, parent company Entergy Corp. said Monday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In the 10-Q filing, the New […]

By John Stang Limited liability companies and the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects on long-term scheduling dominated discussion in a Nuclear Regulatory Commission webinar Tuesday on nearly completed recommendations for financial assurances for decommissioning of commercial nuclear power plants. The session was intended to receive input from the public on April 6 draft final recommendations from a […]

By John Stang The Nuclear Regulatory Commission as of Friday had approved three exemptions for nuclear plants to exceed federal limits on work hours to ensure they remain operational during the COVID-19 pandemic. All three facilities are owned by Chicago-based power company Exelon: the Limerick Generating Station in Montgomery County, Pa., on April 3; the […]

Pennsylvania’s top environmental official on Monday expressed deep reservations about plans for the expedited decommissioning of reactor Unit 2 at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. The reactor famously operated for only a few months before partially melting down in March 1979. It never resumed service. Nuclear services firm EnergySolutions plans to buy the […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved its first exemption authorizing a nuclear power plant to exceed federal limits on work hours to ensure it remains operational during the COVID-19 pandemic. The April 3 approval was filed one day after Exelon Generation submitted the request for its Limerick Generating Station in Montgomery County, Pa. The document […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday announced receipt of its first request from a nuclear power plant for an exception to the federal limits for work hours during the COVID-19 crisis. Exelon Generation filed the request Thursday for its two-reactor Limerick Generating Station in Montgomery County, Pa. “By implementing the alternate work hour controls, LGS […]

By John Stang The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is allowing nuclear power plants to request exemptions for certain limits on work hours for personnel to help ensure continuity of operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. “A sudden and potentially long-term reduction in available facility staffing, such as that which may result due to the COVID-19 (public health […]

By John Stang The schedule for decommissioning of reactor Unit 2 at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania is being coordinated with the timetable for teardown of Unit 1, even though they have separate owners. There is a hint that the two reactors could together accelerate their schedules for decommissioning, possibly by […]

A working group of staff at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is scheduled in March to issue a formal set of recommendations to enhance financial assurances for decommissioning of nuclear power plants. Senior managers at the agency established the working group last September to consider the matter in the face of a growing trend in the […]

By John Stang Power company Exelon repeated Tuesday that it still needs additional legislative help from states to keep its nuclear plants open. The message from President and CEO Chris Crane, speaking to financial analysts during a teleconference on the company’s 2019 earnings, echoed concerns he has raised repeatedly – most recently during the company’s […]

By John Stang The current and would-be owner of the infamous Three Mile Island reactor Unit 2 in Pennsylvania believe almost $300 million and 16 years can be trimmed from the prior decommissioning plan for the facility. In a package submitted Dec. 12, 2019, to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, GPU Nuclear and TMI-2 Solutions said decommissioning […]

Decommissioning trust funds for 119 operational and retired nuclear power reactors in the United States together held $64.7 billion at the end of 2018, according to the latest update from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Two power providers initially failed to demonstrate “decommissioning funding assurance” for a handful of reactors, though those issues were all […]

Decommissioning trust funds for 119 operational and retired nuclear power reactors together held $64.7 billion at the end of 2018, according to the latest update from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Agency staff on Dec. 31 provided the NRC commissioners with its review of the 2019 decommissioning funding status reports from nuclear utilities. The report, […]

A veteran of 28 years in the commercial nuclear power industry is the new acting manager for the U.S. Department of Energy office that oversees the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in New Mexico. Greg Sosson was apparently appointed to the temporary detail earlier this month, according to the Carlsbad Field Office website. Sosson joined […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has signed off on transferring the reactor and spent-fuel storage licenses for the Zion nuclear power plant in Illinois from decommissioning contractor EnergySolutions to site owner Exelon. The order from agency staff took effect on Nov. 26, according to a Dec. 6 notice in the Federal Register. It is good […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has signed off on transferring the reactor and spent-fuel storage licenses for the Zion nuclear power plant in Illinois from decommissioning contractor EnergySolutions to site owner Exelon. The order from agency staff took effect on Nov. 26, according to a Dec. 6 notice in the Federal Register. It is good […]

At the end of the last federal fiscal year on Sept. 30, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission was overseeing decommissioning of 23 nuclear power and early demonstration reactors. Of those reactors, 11 were undergoing active decommissioning and the remaining 12 were in SAFSTOR, or safe storage, in which final cleanup can be delayed for up […]

By John Stang As it faces a federal investigation over its lobbying practices, power company Exelon said Thursday it might close four nuclear power plants in Illinois if that state’s legislature does not pass legislation in 2020 to help keep them afloat. President and CEO Chris Crane said Exelon needs zero-emission credits for four plants […]

EnergySolutions on Tuesday said it had sealed the deal for acquisition of reactor Unit 2 (TMI-2) at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, which famously partially melted down 40 years ago. Under the newly signed contract, the Salt Lake City-based nuclear services firm will buy TMI-2’s assets and obtain its licenses from […]

The deadline came and went Monday for the Department of Energy and other federal agencies to terminate at least one-third of their federal advisory committees, but it was not clear this week whether the agency had complied with the directive. A DOE spokesperson did not reply to multiple requests for a list of committees cut […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission as of Tuesday has placed a new branch in charge of oversight of the recently retired reactor Unit 1 at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant near Harrisburg, Pa. Oversight has been transferred from the agency’s operating power reactor inspection program to its decommissioning power reactor inspection program under […]