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U.S. NEWS Wednesday 31 May 2017

3 Mile Island owner threatens to close ill-fated plant

tax revenue. mered by the natural gas PSEG of New Jersey, which
“Like New York and Illinois boom. owns all or parts of four
before it, the common- In December, Illinois ap- nuclear plants, has said it
wealth has an opportunity proved $235 million a year won’t operate ones that
to take a leadership role by for Exelon to prop up nucle- are long-term money los-
implementing a policy solu- ar plants in the Quad Cit- ers.
tion to preserve its nuclear ies and Clinton, six months Built during a golden age
energy facilities and the after the company threat- for nuclear power, Three
clean, reliable energy and ened to shut them down. Mile Island’s Unit 1 went
good-paying jobs they pro- FirstEnergy Corp. has said online in 1974 and Unit 2 in
vide,” Chris Crane, Exelon it could decide next year 1978, coughing steam into
president and CEO, said in to sell or close its three nu- the air above its sliver of
a statement. clear plants — Davis-Besse land in the Susquehanna
Around the U.S., nuclear and Perry in Ohio and Bea- River, about 10 miles from
plants have been ham- ver Valley in Pennsylvania. Harrisburg.q
This photo shows cooling towers at the Three Mile Island nuclear
power plant in Middletown, Pa. Exelon Corp., the owner of Three
Mile Island, site of the United States’ worst commercial nuclear
power accident, said Tuesday, May 30, 2017 it will shut down
the plant in 2019 without a financial rescue from Pennsylvania.
(AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

By MARC LEVY to renewable forms of en-
Associated Press ergy, such as wind and
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — solar. It has not said how
Cheap natural gas could much it wants.
do what the worst com- Pennsylvania Gov. Tom
mercial nuclear power ac- Wolf has made no com-
cident in U.S. history could mitment to a bailout. In
not: put Three Mile Island a statement Tuesday,
out of business. Wolf said he is concerned
Three Mile Island’s owner, about layoffs at Three Mile
Exelon Corp., announced Island and open to discus-
Tuesday that the plant that sions about the future of
was the site of a terrifying nuclear power. Nuclear
partial meltdown in 1979 bailouts have won approv-
will close in 2019 unless al in Illinois and New York,
the state of Pennsylvania but the potential for higher
comes to its financial res- utility bills in Pennsylvania is
cue. generating resistance from
Nuclear power plants rival energy companies,
around the U.S. have been manufacturers and con-
struggling in recent years to sumer advocates.
compete with generating David Hughes, president of
stations that burn plentiful the Pittsburgh-based con-
and inexpensive natural sumer group Citizen Power,
gas to produce electricity. said the notion that nucle-
The Chicago-based ener- ar power is clean energy,
gy company’s announce- as the industry argues, is
ment came after what it laughable.
called more than five years “It’s a myth, and they’re
of losses at the single-reac- trying any way they can
tor plant and Three Mile Is- to get more money out of
land’s recent failure to be ratepayers,” he said.
selected as a guaranteed In addition to contending
supplier of power to the re- that nuclear power can
gional electric grid. help fight climate change
Exelon wants Pennsylvania better than gas or coal,
to give nuclear power the Exelon and other energy
kind of preferential treat- companies have argued
ment and premium pay- that their plants are big
ments that are extended employers and sources of