Nesbit: Decommissioning shortfalls an 'accounting issue'

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DOWNERS GROVE – Although the economy is affecting Exelon Nuclear' s decommissioning  funds, there's plenty of time ahead to recoup before the company begins dismantling its reactors.

"The problem at the moment is these funds are taking a hit in their investments, same as a lot of people have," company spokesman Craig Nisbit said Friday.

"But, you're talking about any nuclear plant that's out there today - the oldest plants in the country - that have at least  20 more years in front of them. Most plants have 50 to 60 years, so there's plenty of time for the funds to recover. But, you just have to go through the accounting every couple of years."

Nisbit said the NRC's notification is a routine accounting procedure.

"If you look at it, about every other year we go through a spate of this, and everybody thinks, 'Oh, my God, there's something going on," he noted.

"And, there's nothing. You've just got to go through the accounting as part of the licensing of a plant, certifying every couple of years your plants are, according to the schedule, fully funded for decommissioning, whenever that is."

In the case of Braidwood Generating Station at Braceville, for example, decommissioning probably will not happen until somewhere about 2060 to 2070.

"Braidwood is still a young plant," Nisbit said. "Dresden Generating Station at Morris is not ready for decommissioning until 2050 or so. La Salle Station at Marseilles is somewhere in there, too – the middle of the century."

 It's an accounting issue more than anything, he added.

"Whatever you need to do, you've got 40, 50, 60, 70 years to do it in," Nisbit said.