After an Illinois climate bill bailed out two financially-struggling nuclear plants in the state, the utility operating the reactors said last week that their lifespans had been significantly increased.
Byron Nuclear Generating Station’s Unit 2 reactor will run until 2046 and its Unit 1 reactor is slated to shut down in 2044, Exelon said in an earnings press release Nov. 3. That’s consistent with the plant’s 2015 license renewal from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Before the state bailouts, Exelon had planned to take the reactors offline last month. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) on Sep. 15 greenlit a roughly $700 million cash injection for the Byron, Ill., plant.
Similarly, Dresden Nuclear Generating Station in Morris, Ill., will be able to keep at least one of its three reactors humming away until 2031, thanks to the bailout, Exelon said.
A spokesperson for the company told RadWaste Monitor Oct. 27 that Byron’s reactors had been completely refueled. Dresden should have its fuel rods back in place this month, the spokesperson said.
Exelon also no longer considers its other Illinois nuclear plants, Braidwood Generating Station and LaSalle County Generating Station, to be “at risk for premature retirement,” the company said Nov. 3.
Although nuclear power in Illinois is getting a second wind, that hasn’t been a common theme for plants across the country. Michigan’s Palisades plant is due for closure early in the new year, and Indian Point Energy Center in New York shut down for good April 30.
The nation’s nuclear fleet might have a saving grace in the Joe Biden administration’s trillion-dollar infrastructure bill, which is now through both houses of Congress and on its way to the Resolute Desk. The measure proposes around $6 billion in tax credits to be auctioned off to nuclear plants that post a net operating loss.
