(Oak Harbor, OH) Nuclear regulators say the shutdown at Davis Besse could take decades.
The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission says First Energy filed paperwork to cease operations in 2020, as planned. But how to decommission and dismantle the aging nuclear power plant is yet to be determined.
There's still a remote possibility of a bailout or a buyer surfacing, but the process of decommissioning the plant could take up to six decades because of spent nuclear fuel, how to remove it, where to store it, and other factors.
At least two options are available-- dismantling equipment and buildings or encasing the plant in concrete and waiting for the nuclear fuel to decay.
A pair of First Energy subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy in March-- and now the electric utility says it will get out of the generation side and focus on electrical transmission instead.