Monday, Dominion – owners of Waterford’s Millstone Nuclear Power Station – announced they were closing down a nuclear power plant in Wisconsin after they couldn’t find a buyer for the plant, according to the Associated Press.
The company said it would stop producing power from its Kewanuee Power Station, located in Carlton, Wis., by the second quarter of 2013 and then move the plant to a safe shutdown status, according to the AP. Dominion will pay a $281 million charge to close the station and the closing of the station will mean the loss of 400 jobs at the plant, according to the AP.
"This was an extremely difficult decision," Dominion CEO Thomas F. Farrell II said in a news release. "This decision was based purely on economics. Dominion was not able to move forward with our plan to grow our nuclear fleet in the Midwest to take advantage of economies of scale."
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker told the AP the news highlights the need to "decrease unnecessary federal regulations slowing the process for companies, like Dominion, to take advantage of economies of scale and keep their businesses profitable and open."
A.J. “Skip” Jordan, who formerly was the plant manager at Millstone Power Station, was sent to run the Kewaunee plant at the beginning of this year. He was swapped for Stephen Scace, who was the plant manager at Kewaunee and now runs Millstone Power Station.
