Exelon last week formally notifed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of its plans to permanently close the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania.
The company’s Exelon Generation subsidiary on May 30 announced the planned closure of the plant’s reactor Unit 1. Official notice to the agency that regulates commercial nuclear power operations is a mandatory part of the process.
“Therefore … Exelon certified to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission that it has decided to permanently cease power operations at TMI, Unit 1 on or about September 30, 2019,” J. Bradley Fewell, senior vice president for regulatory affairs and general counsel for Exelon Generation, wrote in a June 30 letter to the NRC.
In making the announcement last month, Exelon the closure was necessitated by “severe financial challenges” facing the power plant. Low natural gas prices and other market conditions have contributed to the closure of a number of nuclear facilities in recent years.
Exelon President and CEO Chris Crane, though, in May suggested Three Mile Island could remain open if Pennsylvania provides zero-emissions credits like those applied in New York and Illinois. Exelon in April completed the acquisition of the James A. FitzPatrick nuclear power plant in upstate New York after the state approved a credits plan; former owner Entergy had intended to close the facility. Similar legislation in Illinois staved off planned closures at Exelon’s Clinton Power Station and the Quad Cities Nuclear Power Station.
The 837-megawatt Three Mile Island Unit 1 pressurized-water reactor has operated since 1974. Exelon does not own the plant’s Unit 2 reactor, which has not operated since famously partially melting down in 1979.
