Early retirement for two US nuclear plants
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Two money-losing nuclear power plants in the US are to shut down earlier than expected.
Power company Exelon made the announcement after state policymakers declined a financial support plan that would have helped keep the plants running.
The Clinton Power Station in central Illinois will close in June 2017 and the Quad Cities Generating Station in Cordova will shut down in June 2018. They have generated more than 650TWh of electricity in total.
The firm said the two plants lost $800 million (£550m) in the last seven years.
Chris Crane, Exelon President and CEO said: “This is an extremely difficult day for the 1,500 employees who operate these plants safely and reliably every day.
“We have worked for several years to find a sustainable path forward in consultation with federal regulators, market operators, state policymakers, plant community leaders, labor and business leaders as well as environmental groups and other stakeholders. Unfortunately, legislation was not passed and now we are forced to retire the plants.”
Article source: http://www.energylivenews.com/2016/06/03/early-retirement-for-two-us-nuclear-plants/
