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US Nuke Plant to be Closed; Another Poised to Follow

posted by martyb on Monday October 19 2015, @08:34AM   Printer-friendly
from the just-preparing-for-thorium-and-molten-salt-reactors? dept.

"gewg_" writes:

from the economic-realities dept.

Utility Dive reports

Entergy Corp. plans to shutter its 680 MW Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Mass. no later than June 1, 2019, the company said this week.

AP reports that financial factors drove Entergy to make the decision, including tough market conditions, reduced revenues, and increased operational costs. Entergy said it did not anticipate the economics of the plant to change in the near future, either through a rebound in power prices or a different market structure.

The exact timing of the closure will be decided next year, but the company has already informed the ISO New England that it intends to stop participating as a capacity resource.

CounterPunch continues

Entergy is also poised to shut the FitzPatrick reactor in New York. It promises an announcement by the end of this month.

Entergy also owns Indian Point 2 and Indian Point 3 some 40 miles north of Manhattan. Unit 2's operating license has long since lapsed. Unit 3's will expire in December.

[...] Meanwhile, like nearly all old American nukes, both Pilgrim and FitzPatrick are losing tons of money. Entergy admits to loss projections of $40 million/year or more at Pilgrim, with parallel numbers expected at FitzPatrick. The company blames falling gas and oil prices for the shortfalls.

[...] the boom in wind [and] solar, increased efficiency, and other Solartopian advances are at the real core of nuke power's escalating economic melt-down.

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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Hairyfeet on Monday October 19 2015, @01:30PM

    by Hairyfeet (75) <reversethis-{moc ... {8691tsaebssab}> on Monday October 19 2015, @01:30PM (#251792) Journal

    Uhhh you DO realize they are being pushed out by coal and gas, yes? So you are actually supporting MORE crap being shoved into our environment because the so called "green" energy like wind and solar simply cannot give you 24/7 performance and ramp up with demand so they are just gonna keep right on burning because thanks to fracking and coal subsidies its cheaper to burn than to run a nuclear plant.

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  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday October 19 2015, @08:12PM

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Monday October 19 2015, @08:12PM (#252002) Homepage
    Yes, I do realise that. And I realise that that is bad in the long term for the US. Which is why it's a good thing for everyone else who can possibly benefit later from selling energy-related technology to the US. The futher back you hold yourself, the better our competitive advantage. But as I say, the rest of the world's not exactly firing on all cylinders presently when it comes to moving energy technology forward.
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