HARRISBURG (AP) — The owner of Three Mile Island, site of the United States’ worst commercial nuclear power accident, said Monday that it will shut down the plant in 2019 without a financial rescue from Pennsylvania.
Exelon Corp.’s announcement comes after what it called more than five years of losses on the single-unit power plant and its recent failure in a capacity auction to sell Three Mile Island’s power into the regional grid.
In the meantime, the Chicago-based energy company wants Pennsylvania to give nuclear power the kind of preferential treatment that are given to renewable energies, such as wind and solar.
Exelon and other nuclear power plant owners have made the pitch to states that zero-carbon nuclear plants are better suited than natural gas or coal to fight climate change.
A spokesman for Talen Energy, which runs the nuclear plant north of Berwick, said that it also is participating in “discussions about the value of nuclear in Pennsylvania and across the country.”
So-called nuclear bailouts have thus far won approval in Illinois and New York, but the potential for higher utility bills in Pennsylvania is drawing pushback from rival energy companies, manufacturers and consumer advocates.
“Like New York and Illinois before it, the commonwealth has an opportunity to take a leadership role by implementing a policy solution to preserve its nuclear energy facilities and the clean, reliable energy and good-paying jobs they provide,” Exelon’s president and CEO, Chris Crane, said in a statement.
Talen spokesman Todd Martin declined to talk more in detail about if Talen faces pressures similar to Three Mile Island.
Gas boom hurts nuclear
Nuclear power plants have been hammered by the natural gas boom that has slashed electricity prices in competitive markets.
Three Mile Island isn’t alone: FirstEnergy Corp. has said it could decide next year to sell or close its three nuclear plants — Davis-Besse and Perry in Ohio and Beaver Valley in Pennsylvania. PSEG of New Jersey owns all or parts of four nuclear plants, but it has said it won’t operate ones that are long-term money losers.
While Talen wouldn’t comment Tuesday, spokesman Martin said last summer that the Susquehanna plant “is not facing imminent financial risks that threaten its future.”
Perhaps nuclear power’s biggest nemesis is the cheap natural gas flooding the market from the Northeast’s Marcellus Shale reservoir, the nation’s most prolific gas field. Meanwhile, electricity consumption hit a wall after the recession, while states have emphasized renewable energies and efficiency.
With the rapid growth of natural gas power in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, closing Three Mile Island would have little or no impact on electricity bills, analysts say. But it may be replaced by carbon-emitting power sources such as coal or natural gas.
Christina Simeone, of the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, said the mid-Atlantic grid operator, PJM, and the U.S. Department of Energy have taken first steps toward policies or recommendations that could help nuclear power plants.
“I definitely think they are responding to some profound changes in the market as a result of very low prices for natural gas and hyper-competitive natural gas resources,” Simeone said.
Damaged reactor idle
In March 1979, equipment failure and operator errors led to a partial core meltdown of one of Three Mile Island’s two reactors.
The damaged reactor has been mothballed since, but the other reactor is still in use. Exelon said that its operating costs for just one unit at the plant are high, further damaging Three Mile Island’s financial viability.
Pennsylvania is the nation’s No. 2 nuclear power state after Illinois.