Nuclear power plant closures and cancellations (US)

Up-to-date reports World Nuclear Industry Status Report

TVA's Bellefonte plants cancelled, the latest in a long line of nuclear debacles The two plants were cancelled after a record-breaking 47 years since construction began. By Linda Pentz Gunter, September 26, 2021

Duane Arnold Plant (Iowa) closed permanently due to storm damage August 26, 2020

Nucleargate in Ohio: Should be closed, but not yet, due to massive bribery Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear plants in Ohio are two of the most seriously degraded reactors in the country and should have been shut down years ago, but bribery reaching to the speaker of the state house of representatives resulted in a law keeping them open. Now the speaker and others have been arrested and charged, but the plants are still open. Beyond Nuclear International, July 24, 2020

Indian Point #2 shut down as of April 30, 2020. Reactor #1 will shut down one year later.
See also: Indian Point 11 plead "guilty and proud" in court, March 17, 2016
See also: Indian Point 11: guilty and proud (video, 53 minutes) March 12, 2016

Three Mile Island #1 closed September 20, 2019

Pilgrim (Mass.) closed May 31, 2019

Oyster Creek, NJ closed September 17, 2018, 15 months early. It was one of the most uneconomic nuclear plants in the US, and Exelon didn't want to lose money running it for the final year before its licenses expire.

Duke Energy cancels 2 planned nuclear projects South Carolina and Florida plants abandoned before construction starts. Instead, Duke will add 700 MW of solar plants in the next 4 years. August 29, 2017

Cancelled: V.C. Summer nuclear station in South Carolina Billions over budget and years behind schedule. Now the utility talks of needing coal power instead. But if they had planned clean power sources before sinking $9 billion into this project, they would now have something to show for it. Another example of how nuclear power projects make things worse for the atmosphere. Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, July 31, 2017
New reactor construction collapses because it's "prohibitively expensive" Beyond Nuclear, August 1, 2017
Criminal investigations begin into abandoned South Carolina reactor project By Jim Green, Nuclear Monitor, October 11, 2017
A dozen reasons for the economic failure of nuclear power The nuclear industry’s collapse is stunning, but it should come as no surprise. This is exactly what happened during the first round of nuclear construction in the United States, in the decade between 1975 and 1985. History is repeating itself, notably in South Carolina, because of a dozen factors and trends that render nuclear power, new and old, inevitably uneconomic. By Mark Cooper, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, October 17, 2017
How South Carolina's nuclear project collapsed: a timeline The State (Columbia, SC), February 7, 2018
Building lawsuits instead of power plants: Where South Carolina's nuclear fiasco stands now South Carolina swapped engineering for litigation, construction designs for federal subpoenas, and two nuclear reactors for a debt larger than the state government's annual budget. This will sound familiar to anyone who lived through the WPPSS debacle. The Charleston (SC) Post and Courier, April 15, 2018
South Carolina utility official to plead guilty to federal felony in V.C. Summer construction debacle In a historic court proceeding, Stephen Byrne, a former official responsible for the SCE&G nuclear reactor construction debacle, will plead guilty to a conspiracy involving the failed project, which began in 2008 and was terminated in July 2017, after a waste of over $11 billion by SCE&G and Santee Cooper. The project, which unjustly saddled customers with the costs, led to the bankruptcy of SCE&G and helped kill the future of construction of large nuclear power reactors in the United States. July 13, 2020 More details here
SCANA ex-CEO to plead guilty to fraud, get prison, pay $5 million Federal conspiracy fraud in connection with nuclear fiasco. He faces 18 months to 10 years in prison. The State (Columbia, SC), November 25, 2020

Entergy will close Palisades nuclear reactor in 2018 Palisades has the worst embrittled reactor vessel of any nuclear reactor in the U.S. Beyond Nuclear, December 8, 2016
Update: Holtec loses its bid to reopen Palisades Beyond Nuclear, November 20, 2022

Subsidizing Nuclear Will Only Make Our Grid Problems Worse Nuclear plant owners are threatening to shut reactors down unless the government and ratepayers close their shortfalls due to competition from lower-cost energy sources. By Steve Cicala, Forbes Magazine, August 11, 2016

Even nuclear plants with multiple reactors and long-term contracts now at risk of shutdown It's not just small, single-unit nuclear plants in competitive electricity markets any more. UBS Securities on June 23 reported in U.S. Electric Utilities & IPPs: Reacting to Retirements that atomic reactors such as Entergy's Palisades in Michigan, with a very lucrative (at ratepayer expense) long-term Power Purchase Agreement, are nonetheless at risk of near-term shutdown. UBS recommends Palisades be closed by spring 2017, as a favor to Entergy and Consumers Energy shareholders, as well as long-gouged ratepayers. In addition, even multi-unit nuclear plants, such as Prairie Island 1 & 2 in Minnesota, could well shutter by the mid-2020s, UBS reports. Beyond Nuclear, June 30, 2016

Diablo Canyon, CA plants will not renew operating licenses
The twin reactors will shut down by the time their licenses expire in 2024 and 2025
Closing Diablo Canyon will save money and carbon By Amory Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute, June 22, 2016 (Originally published in Forbes magazine.)
Should California Keep Its Last Nuclear Plant Open? Governor Gavin Newsom has proposed waiving all environmental requirements and keeping the plant open for another 10 years. Meanwhile, Diablo Canyon discharges superheated seawater back into the ocean, with dramatic effects on sea life and the marine ecosystem. It will cost billions to fix this problem, which was allowed to persist until the projected 2025 closing date. Canary Media, August 16, 2022
Update: Environmental group suffers setback in legal fight to close California's last nuclear power plant ABC News, August 24, 2023

Exelon plans to close reactors
Clinton, IL (1 reactor) and
Quad Cities, IL (2 reactors) plants. Exelon hasn't managed to convince the Illinois legislature to subsidize its nuclear operations.

Three Mile Island, PA (1) plant failed to clear in the regional capacity auction for 2019-2020, meaning those units will not be able to receive capacity revenue for that period. Exelon, the reactor's owner, announced in May 2017 that it will shut down operation in 2019 if the company does not receive a bailout from the state.

Entergy announced in April 2016 that it will close
FitzPatrick, NY in January 2017 and
                          --World Nuclear News, June 2, 2016

Fort Calhoun, NE: Operator Omaha Public Power District's CEO recommended closure to his board.  The board agreed on June 16, 2016. The plant will be closed by the end of 2016, saving the utility a projected $375 million to $994 million over the next 20 years.

The Tennessee Valley Authority is putting its uncompleted Bellefonte, AL nuclear plant up for sale. TVA has spent more than $5 billion on construction and maintenance over the past 42 years but now figures the site is worth about $36 million.

US 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, an internal e-mail 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 at Beyond Nuclear, June 8, 2016

Recently closed:

Vermont Yankee, VT (1), 2014

San Onofre units 2 & 3, CA (2), 2013

Crystal River, FL (1), 2009 (formally closed 2013)

Kewaunee, WI (1), 2013

 

Closed earlier:

Millstone, CT unit 1 (1), 1998

Zion, IL (2), 1998

Big Rock Point, MI (1), 1997

Maine Yankee, ME (1), 1996

Trojan (1), OR, 1993 See Deadly Secrets: The Untold Story of Trojan, 39-minute video

Connecticut Yankee, CT (1), 1992

Yankee Rowe, MA (1), 1992

San Onofre unit 1 (1), CA, 1992

Rancho Seco, CA (1), 1989 (The first nuclear plant on earth shut down by public vote)

Shoreham, NY (1), 1989 (The first US commercial nuclear generating plant to be dismantled; never generated power commercially)

Fort St. Vrain, CO (1), 1989 (The first US commercial nuclear generating plant to be decommissioned)