States Are the Nuclear Industry’s Best Hope
A sign explains the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident that occurred in 1979 with an active cooling tower in the background in Middletown, Pa.
Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Thirty-seven years after a partial meltdown of one of its two reactors made it a symbol of the potential for radioactive catastrophe, the Three Mile Island nuclear plant is still operating—for now. The Dauphin County, Pa., facility represents the perilous economic condition of a nuclear industry besieged by competition from inexpensive natural gas and subsidized wind and solar power. Three Mile Island’s owner, Chicago-based Exelon, said in a statement that unless the government intervenes to keep the plant running, the notorious facility’s “long-term future past 2019” is in doubt.
That suits opponents just fine. “Nuclear power has failed dismally in the marketplace, and that’s what will doom Three Mile Island,” says Eric Epstein, chairman of Three Mile Island Alert, a Harrisburg, Pa., group. Yet for those concerned about climate change—presumably not the Trump administration, which is populated by climate-change skeptics, including the president-elect—the waning of nuclear power presents a challenge.