Openness needed on closing of Zion plants

Since 1998, Exelon's public statements regarding closure of the Zion nuclear plant have been opaque and confusing. Rather than explain what part “economics” played in shuttering the plant, Exelon has chosen to shroud its business dealings in a veil of secrecy, further restricting the information that has reached the public via the media.

In August of this year, Exelon transferred Zion's two licenses to ZionSolutions, LLC, a special subsidiary of EnergySolutions, Inc., formed specifically to perform the safe decommissioning and environmental restoration of the site. With this in mind, I attended a community open house on 0ct. 28, hosted by ZionSolutions, designed to convince attendees that ZionSolutions was making every effort to be open and transparent with the public. ZionSolutions failed in its public relations.

Because all Illinoisans must be kept abreast of what is happening here in northern Illinois to the Dual Zion Nuclear Plant with its combined capacity of 2,200 MWE, I feel duty-bound in keeping Daily Herald readers informed of the foolishness of Exelon's decision to waste Zion, knowing that wind and solar will fail miserably in meeting this state's future energy needs.

The following two important questions need to be asked of Exelon officials before the Zion plant is unnecessarily wasted:

1. Did Exelon intentionally and prematurely close the two plants that customers have already paid billions to construct (plus a billion dollars for decommissioning) in order to keep these least-expensive, safe, green, non-polluting electricity-generating plants out of the grid, thereby keeping electricity prices high?

2. Why hasn't Exelon tried to sell these two plants? Could it be because a new owner would produce lowest cost, safe, green electricity for Illinois customers and this would lower the electricity bills for consumers, reducing Exelon's profits?

Where are Illinois' legislators? Few have responded to my repeated requests over this past summer to look into the Zion/Exelon saga. It would be unfortunate if our politicians were in the back pockets of Exelon officials.

Nancy J. Thorner

Lake Bluff