EXC Exelon Corporation

By Chris Wack

Exelon Corp. said its Exelon Generation unit, owner and operator of the Byron and Dresden nuclear energy facilities, will file post-shutdown decommissioning activity reports with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, detailing long-term site restoration plans for both stations after they shut down this fall.

The company said the filings are among the final steps in retiring the plants, which face revenue shortfalls in the hundreds of millions of dollars due to low energy prices and market policies that give fossil fuel plants an "unfair competitive advantage."

Exelon said that absent a legislative solution, these same market inequities will force the company to close its Braidwood and LaSalle nuclear facilities sometime in the next few years.

With the reports complete, Exelon Generation is now preparing to issue job reduction notifications to employees impacted by the plant shutdowns. Staffing at the plants will fall from nearly 1,500 employees when the plant retirements were announced last August to 30 to 40 employees over the next 10 years.

Exelon said that closing the two plants will have the immediate environmental impact equivalent to putting 4.4 million additional cars on the road, emitting carbon and other harmful sources of air pollution.

As part of the decommissioning process, Exelon Generation has up to 60 years to restore Byron and Dresden, which includes transporting the stations' used fuel to long-term storage, decontaminating and removing plant components and razing the remaining buildings.

Byron is scheduled to shut down in September and Dresden in November.

Write to Chris Wack at chris.wack@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 28, 2021 10:37 ET (14:37 GMT)

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