Exelon lobbyists also seeking ratepayer bailouts to prop up TMI 1 reactor in PA

After announcing closure dates for three non-competitive atomic reactors in IL last week (Clinton by June 1, 2017; Quad Cities 1 & 2 by June 1, 2018), economic woes at its Byron nuclear plant in IL and Three Mile Island Unit 1 atomic reactor in PA are making headlines this week, as in PowerMag.

As reported by Lancaster Online, Exelon's lobbyists have threatened PA legislators with the closure of TMI, perhaps by mid-2018, unless they approve a massive ratepayer bailout.

But as reported by UtilityDIVE, such state efforts to prop up failing atomic reactors are coming too late, especially in the face of failure by nuclear power plants to clear PJM capacity market auctions.

In an interview with E&E TV held the same day as a recent emergency "save the nukes" meeting hastily convened at the U.S. Department of Energy, the CEO and President of the Nuclear Energy Institure, Marvin Fertel, admitted that 10-20 atomic reactors across the country are at risk of near-term closure.

Fertel did not list them by name, but Dr. Mark Cooper did, three years ago. An energy economist at Vermont Law School, Cooper -- way back in July, 2013 -- in a report entitled Renaissance in Reverse, accurately predicted the 2014 closure of Vermont Yankee, and the recently announced closures of: Fort Calhoun, NE (by Oct. 2016); FitzPatrick, NY (by Jan. 2017); Pilgrim, MA (by 2019); and now Clinton and Quad Cities in IL, as mentioned above.