WASHINGTON, D.C.—Over the past 5 years, 18 nuclear reactors at 14 sites across the United States have either closed or their premature closings have been announced. The latest announcement arrived last night, when FirstEnergy Solutions alerted regional grid operator PJM Interconnection and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of its intent to shutter, forever, nuclear reactors at its Perry, Davis-Besse and Beaver Valley stations. These early shutdowns are not isolated events; they are evidence of a larger systemic problem: The full value of nuclear power plants is not recognized in the price of electricity, and policymakers are failing to act.
With a total generating capacity of more than 4,000 megawatts, the four FirstEnergy reactors at three sites in Ohio and Pennsylvania provide jobs for about 2,300 people and generate more than $540 million in local taxes. The plant closures will be phased in over the next three years, but the damage will be felt for decades.
“We are no longer in a moment of modest market correction—our nation’s electricity grid is enduring unprecedented tumult and challenge, scores of communities across the country are confronting dramatic economic upheaval, and our broad environmental goals collapse when you remove thousands and thousands of megawatts of carbon-free, fuel-secure generation that nuclear plants represent,” said Maria Korsnick, president and chief executive officer at the Nuclear Energy Institute.
“Losing these plants will imperil the resilience of the grid,” Korsnick said. “The Department of Energy recently released a study that showed PJM was reliant upon economically challenged plants to provide generation during the bomb cyclone event this winter. The loss of an additional 4,000 MW of fuel-secure nuclear generation will make managing weather and other extreme events even more challenging.
“These nuclear plants provide 24/7/365 electricity that does not release carbon dioxide or other air pollutants. Recent history shows that this generation will be overwhelmingly replaced by power from fossil fuel plants, which will make environmental goals impossible to achieve. We also know that electricity prices for consumers rise in the aftermath of plant closures.”
On average, a nuclear energy facility generates $470 million in sales of goods and services in the local community and nearly $40 million in total labor income annually. Each year, it pays about $67 million in federal taxes and almost $16 million in state and local taxes—crucial revenue that benefits schools, police, fire and other core infrastructure. The nuclear plant closings that have occurred and been announced in recent years encompass the loss of over 15,000 MW of electric generating capacity and more than 10,000 direct jobs.