Exelon Announces Early Illinois Nuclear Plant Closures

Exelon announced the start of plans to close the Clinton and Quad Cities nuclear plants in Illinois.

The Illinois General Assembly failed to pass legislation called the Next Generation Energy Plan, which would have helped sustain the two plants.

The Clinton Power Station will shut down June 1, 2017, and the Quad Cities Generating Station will close June 1, 2018. The two plants support roughly 4,200 direct and indirect jobs, including 700 workers at Clinton and 800 workers at Quad Cities, producing more than $1.2 billion in economic activity annually.

Illinois has the most nuclear plants in the country with 48.4% of electricity coming from nuclear power that accounts for 90% of Illinois’s carbon-free electricity.The Clinton and Quad Cities facilities power more than 2.5 million homes in Illinois.

Read more about the premature shut down of the Clinton and Quad Cities nuclear plants here.

The American Nuclear Society understood the urgency of the situation in the states when it created a Special Committee on Nuclear in the States last year. The committee developed tools for lawmakers and policymakers to use that would help them retain current nuclear plants while developing clean air standards that would encourage new nuclear builds. The Nuclear in the States Toolkit and additional resources are available on the Public Policy page at ans.org.

"We will continue to educate lawmakers and others about the significant negative economic and environmental impact that closing nuclear plants has not only on the states where they are based, but on neighboring states as well," said Eugene S. Grecheck, ANS President. "This is a major loss for the people of Illinois."