U.S nuclear lobbyists want massive ratepayer bailouts for financially failing reactors

The Nuclear Energy Institute has admitted that 10-20 U.S. reactors are at risk of near-term closure, absent massive ratepayer subsidies to prop them up. Failure by numerous atomic reactors, across multiple states, to clear PJM's recent capacity market auction, has compounded their financial distress. Despite Exelon's announced closure dates for three reactors in IL, the revelation of an internal email shows that the company's lobbyists have not given up on a $1.6 billion ratepayer funded rescue package, perhaps during a special legislative session. Watchdog group Nuclear Energy Information Service of Chicago remains vigilant against the bailout. Exelon's economic malaise has now spread to Byron in IL, Three Mile Island 1 in PA, as well as three age-degraded reactors on NY's Lake Ontario shore. The Alliance for a Green Economy (AGREE) is rallying resistance in NY in opposition to the proposed nuclear bailout, which would undermine renewable energy funding. FirstEnergy faces the same challenges at Davis-Besse on Ohio's Lake Erie shore. Dr. Mark Cooper, an energy economist at Vermont Law School, predicted these reactor closures three years ago, based on a variety of factors, including age-degradation, economic non-competitiveness, and public resistance. PowerDC, Public Citizen, and DC Sun embody such resistance in the nation's capital, challenging Exelon's takeover of Mid-Atlantic utility Pepco, and its transparent scheme to gouge captive ratepayers to prop up failing reactors in other states. More