nuclear-news

Exelon said it would pay $110 million to the plant’s current owner, Entergy, for the operating license and would refuel the James A. FitzPatrick plant in Scriba, N.Y. in January. Exelon said the roughly 600 people working there would keep their jobs. The plant’s license, renewed in 2008, does not expire until 2034.

Cuomo, who has been caught up in the politics of energy, hailed the deal. …….

Entergy had said last November that it would close the nuclear unit because of “market conditions,” making the 838-megawatt plant another victim of low natural gas prices. Those low prices are a product of the fracking boom, especially in neighboring Pennsylvania.

But last week Cuomo announced a plan that would effectively subsidize the state’s nuclear power plants by forcing the utilities that rely on them to pay “zero emission credits” to the operators of those reactors. That is expected to help the plants, which provide 30 percent of New York state’s electricity, to stay open — though critics say that it could drive up electricity rates…….

Exelon operates two other nuclear plants in upstate New York, R.E. Ginna and Nine Mile Point, which lies adjacent to the FitzPatrick unit. The company said it would spend $400 million to $500 million on operations, integration and refueling of those plants and Fitzpatrick as a result of the state subsidy plan.

The Cuomo plan to subsidize the nuclear plants carries a hefty price, which the utilities will be allowed to pass along to consumers. An analysis of the proposal, by the staff of the Public Service Commission, found it might cost $965 million over a span of two years,…..https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/08/09/new-york-state-just-rescued-a-nuclear-plant-from-oblivion/?utm_term=.8f12fd955785