Exelon Corp. has hired Utah's EnergySolutions Inc. to dismantle Exelon's idle Zion Nuclear Power Station in Illinois, the companies said.

The Salt Lake City provider of nuclear services will decommission the two reactors and all other structures and support buildings on Exelon's 257-acre Zion site, with the project scheduled to wrap up in 2018, the companies said.

Under the deal's terms, Exelon, a Chicago electricity generating and distributing company, will transfer the power plant's license and project decommissioning funds to EnergySolutions, Crain's Chicago Business reported.

EnergySolutions said it expected to take possession late next year, pending approval by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

After the project is completed, EnergySolutions will return the land to Exelon.

Exelon then plans to store spent fuel at the site until the federal government removes it, Crain's reported.

The Zion plant, retired in 1998, had been scheduled to be dismantled by the mid-2020s to early 2030s.

The 34-year old plant has not operated since February1997, after a control-room operator accidentally shut down Reactor 1 and then tried to restart it without following procedures. Reactor 2 was already shut down for refueling at the time of the incident.  // Copyright 2007 by United Press International



Publication date: 13 December 2007   

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