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This is the problem with nuclear nobody want the waste....


$1 billion to dismantle nuclear power plant
200 jobs in 10-year plan
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/newssun/news/2629620,5_1_WA24_EXELON_S1-100824.article">http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/news ... 24.article</a><!-- m -->
August 24, 2010
News-Sun staff report
Exelon Corp. announced Monday it has reached agreement on a $1 billion, 10-year project to dismantle the shuttered Zion nuclear power plant.

Used nuclear fuel will remain on site indefinitely under the plan.

In a first-of-its kind arrangement approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Exelon expects to transfer the station license early next month to EnergySolutions, a Salt Lake City nuclear services company that will dismantle the plant and dispose of all Zion low-level radioactive waste at its Clive, Utah, waste facility.

At the completion of the project, responsibility for the site will transfer back to Exelon, and the 200-acre site will be available for other unrestricted commercial uses.

Throughout the process, Exelon will retain ownership of the plant's used nuclear fuel, which must remain on the property in NRC-approved dry cask storage containers.

The $1 billion, 10-year project will be the largest nuclear plant dismantling ever undertaken in the United States, requiring an average of 200 skilled workers each year, most of them local, and a peak workforce of 400.

"The Zion plant has been part of our community for years, and we're gratified that it will continue to deliver benefits over the next decade as it is dismantled," said Zion Mayor Lane Harrison. "This project will be of immense help to our residents by bringing desperately needed new employment."

The license stewardship program is a novel approach to accelerate the decommissioning of nuclear power plants.

"It is very important for EnergySolutions and Exelon to have agreed to close this transaction, so that decommissioning operations at the Zion Station can begin," said Val Christensen, president of EnergySolutions.

President Obama announced in February that the U.S. will stop funding the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada, leaving unanswered where Illinois' nuclear waste will eventually go.