Three Mile Island, site of the United States’ worst nuclear power accident, will begin a planned shutdown starting June 1 now that it is clear that it will not get a financial rescue from Pennsylvania, its owner said Wednesday. Exelon Corp.’s statement comes two years after the Chicago-based energy giant threatened to close the money-losing plant without what critics have called a bailout.
Power from the plant along the Susquehanna River is expected to be replaced by electricity from coal and natural gas-fired power plants that run below capacity in a saturated market. It will go offline by Sept. 30, Exelon said. Cleaning up Unit 1, dismantling its buildings and removing spent fuel could take six decades and cost more than $1 billion, Exelon estimates. The destroyed Unit 2 is sealed and twin cooling towers remain standing.
I was in the very heart of Three Mile Island, reporting live from the reactor core itself, on the day of that near-catastrophe. Molecules of neutrons were shooting phaser-like through my manly body when I turned to Hillary Clinton and said…
As an undergraduate student at a Pa university near TMI i remember mostly how upset our most liberal (a-hole) professors were and the ruckus thy made about getting “re-settlement” money for moving their families out of the blast area.
I still say pluck ’em – it’s the cost of progress.
We will see at least 10 units shut down in the next 3 years. With only 2 (potentially) coming online by then.
With reduced base loading and a stupid dependence on gas plants, expect to see electricity prices to skyrocket as well as heating costs.
For ten years I lived within 2 miles of 17 mobile nuclear reactors, within 10 miles of two other stationary reactors, and within 100 feet of one mobile reactor in particular, and I received fewer rads than people who spend their summers vacationing on the beaches of Florida or winters skiing in Aspen.
Our worst accident was Arkansas One. TMI was a hiccup
I wish people would put some serious research and development into thorium reactors, that may be the key to a safe and abundant energy source for the future.
I can attest that Brian ah Williams was thayre at 3-Mile durin’ mah inspection of the plant. His brave, manly body was shining from neutron radiation and his mouth and nose was all encrusted with alpha particles released from the reactor. But it didn’t stop him from doing a fine job.
Lower operational cost of natural gas powered plants is squeezing out nuclear power from the economic side of the equation. Other than that, nuclear power is still a very safe and reliable energy alternative.
Oh well, lucky us that we have such high supplies of natural gas.
We can moth ball a nuclear plant and reopen it in the future if needed.
America truly is blessed.
Having worked around Nuclear Reactors aboard submarines for many moons, truly the best form of power generation ————–
BUT!!!
What the vast amount of people don’t realize is that it can also be used to produce fresh drinking water from sea water (I also ran the desalinization plant on the sub).
Libs whine and cry about lack of drinking water in third-world shitholes, when it can be readily available while also supplying electricity.
Now there is a win-win scenario.
But, alas! Libs have to pull ideas from their ass!
Back when SNL was still funny, they did a hilarious skit on TMI called “The Pepsi Syndrome”. Might find it on Hulu or utube.
Let’s hurry and get all reliant on nat gas for electricity, before ratepayers learn about the diminishing returns from re-fracking old wells.
Then we can have a crisis, with govt subsidies for stupid energy supply ideas. The power company employees have nothing to fear, they’ll end up with govt jobs.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=fracking+diminishing+returns&atb=v66-2_y&ia=web