Nancy Thorner has a letter in today’s Sun Times about the Zion Nuclear Power Plant.
Don’t let Zion nuke plant go to waste
July 14, 2010Unless there is intervention soon, north suburban Zion’s Dual Nuclear Facility, capable of producing 2,100 megawatts of power, will be foolishly wasted. Exelon Corporation, which owns and operates six other nuclear plants in Illinois, has until November to cancel its contract with Energy Solutions, out of Iowa, for decommissioning.
Restarting the Zion Nuclear Plant could save Illinois residents billions of dollars and massively reduce carbon emissions, in addition to creating the following benefits:
• Lower electricity prices for consumers.
• Hundreds of permanent jobs operating the plant, resulting in significant tax revenues for the town of Zion and the State of Illinois.
• Elimination of the carbon dioxide output equivalent of perhaps eight coal power generation plants.
• Additional emission-free power generation, at perhaps 30 percent of the cost and many times the reliability of other renewable options, while using none of the thousands of acres of land needed for wind and solar facilities.
The citizens of Illinois and the government will otherwise spend billions to subsidize and build immensely more expensive and less efficient wind and power facilities to meet its clean emissions goals.
If you feel your electricity rates are too high — and who doesn’t?– contact Senators Dick Durbin and Roland Burris and your legislators with this message: The Zion Plant must be saved and not wasted!
Nancy J. Thorner, Lake Bluff
Another excellent piece-Thanks Nancy! Read the article in the Sun Times here.