After nearly two years of costly building repairs, Progress Energy has announced it may retire the reactor at its Crystal River plant in Florida.Following a media tour of the plant Tuesday, the Tampa Tribune reported that the company would make its decision by June 27. The company must decide whether to spend more money on the reactor's outer building damaged following a steam generator replacement in 2009. The utility had spent $150 million by the end of last year to fix delaminated concrete, more of which appeared in April. Progress also incurred $290 million in replacement power costs, $181 million of which has been covered by an insurance policy.If Progress decides to cut its losses on the reactor, West Florida would lose 838 megawatts of generation from the single Babcock & Wilcox pressurized water reactor, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The reactor was first licensed in 1976 and its license expires in 2016. Progress is still proposing two new reactors for a site a few miles north of Crystal River.
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Great example of a misleading headline. The final decision had not been announced so the company said that ALL options were on the table. The option to shut down. was included in the range of options analyzed but it never made financial sense and was never seriously considered.
