By Ed Mahon From Pennsylvania Real-Time News

When the nuclear power station needed to be refueled, more than one thousand extra workers headed to the plant.

And when those workers got hungry, many of them turned to Roberto’s Pizza & Subs in Middletown, about three miles from the plant.

The pizza shop is on the same street as a brewery that sells a beer called TMIPA. Across the street, there are some empty storefronts. David Kitner has owned the pizza shop for about 15 years.

Typically, Three Mile Island accounts for 10 percent to 15 percent of the annual revenue at Roberto’s. Refueling years — and the hundreds of extra pizzas a day that are ordered — can bump up the revenue by several more points.

“It sounds small,” said the 42-year-old Kitner. “But it’s big numbers. It’s really big numbers.”

Nuclear reactors typically have those refueling periods every 18 to 24 months — it’s when the reactors stop generating electricity so that fuel can be replaced and other maintenance work can be completed.

It’s a time Kitner looks forward to. And he’s worried the boost to his shop — plus the regular business the plant provides — will come to an end, asExelon plans to close Three Mile Island this fall unless state lawmakers intervene.

When Exelon announced the closure plan two years ago, it said it employed 675 workers and contracted with another 1,500 local union workers for periodic refueling. It sends $930,000 a year in property tax payments to the local school district, Dauphin County government and its local township.

Those are some of the reasons that Mike Pries, a Dauphin County commissioner, thinks the plant is worth saving.

“The impact will be felt throughout central Pennsylvania and the region,” Pries said.

Some lawmakers plan to introduce legislation that would require utilities to buy a certain amount of electricity from nuclear plants. That rule already exists for wind, solar and certain other energy sources. Opponents of the measure say a bailout of the nuclear industry would lead to higher rates for consumers.

Robert Reid, who was the mayor of Middletown when the partial meltdown occurred at Three Mile Island in 1979, used to oppose the plant. Now he wants it saved.

“Well, we’ve bailed out other things,” Reid said. “But if you look at it, it’s important. It’s important that we have and we know that we have that source of energy.”

Steve Letavic objects to the idea of calling it a “bailout.”

Letavic is the manager of Londonderry Township, a community of about 5,000 people and home of the nuclear power plant. It’s a mostly rural township — 84 percent of the land there is agricultural, Letavic said.

He argues that people need to consider the economic benefits of nuclear energy, as well the environmental benefits. Because nuclear reactors don’t produce direct carbon dioxide emissions, some backers of nuclear energy see it as a way to fight climate change.

“This is certainly not a bailout,” Letavic said during an interview at the township office. “And it’s a played word, and it’s a frustratingly tiring word.”

How much the school district, township and county could lose

In 2008, after a dispute over the value of the land for tax purposes, Exelon agreed to make payments to the township, school district and county in addition to the property taxes owed. The parties extended the agreement in 2017 for another two years.

The agreement works out to nearly $638,000 for the school district; nearly $255,000 for the county; and nearly $38,000 for the township.

For the school district, the deal means that about half the money it receives from Exelon comes from regular property taxes, while the other half is from additional payments.

If TMI closes, Lower Dauphin School District spokesman Jim Hazen expects those additional payments to end right away. And, he said, Exelon could further lower its property tax bill by seeking a lower assessed value for tax purposes. The district’s total budget was more than $63 million in 2017-18.

Letavic said Exelon’s regular employees also pay about $130,000 a year in earned income taxes to the township. The company helps fundraise about $50,000 a year for the local fire department through a charity golf outing.

To prepare for the TMI closure, Letavic said the township has left five full-time positions vacant. The township has nine full-time employees working.

Decommissioning a nuclear power plant requires workers, but Letavic expects that work will involve a lot fewer of them. Exelon didn’t respond to questions from PA Post on the issue.

More broadly, Letavic worries about the change for the entire community. He has family from western Pennsylvania, and he has seen what happened to communities when coal and steel industries left. He fears a similar impact if nuclear leaves.

“I go back to the towns that were once thriving, proud towns … and it is just completely depressing,” Letavic said. “Since those industries have dried up out there, those towns are now downtrodden.”

Why the local chamber of commerce isn’t sure state lawmakers should intervene

David Black, president and CEO of the Harrisburg Regional Chamber and Capital Region Economic Development Corporation, doesn’t think there will be the same kind of impact on the region if TMI closes.

“You hate to see it happen. You hate to see anybody lose their job,” Black said.

But, he said, when you look at jobs lost compared to the number of jobs in the entire region, “it’s not that big of a number.” He said the Harrisburg metropolitan area has a workforce of about 300,000. Plus, Three Mile Island draws workers from the York and Lancaster areas.

Dauphin County has a fairly diverse economy and a recent unemployment rate of 4.1 percent.

Exelon doesn’t rank in the top 10 employers in the county.

Employers at the top are the state government, three separate Hershey entities, UPMC Pinnacle Hospitals, the federal government, the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, Penn State, UPS and an electronics company.

Exelon ranked 37th on the list in the second quarter of 2018. It had more employees than the city of Harrisburg and Weis grocery stores, but fewer than the Diocese of Harrisburg and Derry Township School District.

Right now Black’s group is neutral on a state intervention.

Black has doubts about whether the legislation would even save Three Mile Island long-term. The plant has been operating with only one reactor ever since the partial meltdown in 1979.

“There are coalitions on both sides of this issue. And we are not officially involved in either one,” Black said. “Although we’re trying to tap the information that they put out to learn.”

Kitner, the owner of Roberto’s in Middletown, is a member of a coalition trying to save Three Mile Island.

He doesn’t worry too much about the bailout label.

“There’s bailouts across the board. I mean, there’s bailouts for the automotive industry,” Kitner said. “There’s bailouts for almost any major industry at some point in time, and then they just got to figure out a better way.”

He doesn’t think his business would be at risk of closing if TMI does. But he expects he would have to cut back on drivers and other workers.

“Just like anything else, you’ve got to … adapt and overcome,” Kitner said. “I’m fearful for the families. I’m fearful for the plant. I’m hoping they come through with a resolution here.”

Why the former mayor changed his mind

Reid, the former mayor of Middletown, has had a complicated relationship with TMI.

He has lived in Middletown most of his of life and now lives near the airport that gave Three Mile Island its name — the island is three miles away from Harrisburg International Airport.

When the plant was being built, he liked the idea. He thought it would bring jobs — but also it just seemed interesting.

“I thought it was something new, and I could brag to people and say, ‘Well, you don’t have a nuclear plant in your backyard. I do,’ ” Reid said.

In 1977, he was elected mayor of Middletown.

Then there was the accident on March 28, 1979, the inability to get good information, the release of radiation, the wondering which way the wind would blow, and the panic.

Reid stayed in town through it all — but he urged his wife to evacuate. She did, taking their youngest son to a relative’s house in Connecticut.

After the accident, Reid said he was “dead set” against the plant opening back up. So were a lot of others.

In 1982, residents in three counties voted in a non-binding referendum against a restart of the Unit 1 reactor, according to newspaper archives. The margin was 2-1 against.

But Reid thinks many people would vote differently now.

He thinks the United States needs a lot of energy options. And he thinks the current owners have a better relationship with the community.

“It’s a whole different program down there now,” Reid said.

Still, Reid doesn’t think the TMI closure would be a major blow to Middletown. There are a lot of different industries here, he said.

“But any time you take anything away from an area that’s contributing to the economy — you take that away, it’s going to hurt a little,” Reid said.

For more on this story go to; https://www.pennlive.com/news/2019/03/three-mile-island-nuclear-power-plant-to-close-what-would-its-loss-mean.html

Related story:

40 Years After A Partial Nuclear Meltdown, A New Push To Keep Three Mile Island Open

By Marie Cusick From NPR

Forty years ago, the most serious nuclear accident in U.S. history sparked a backlash against the industry and halted its growth for decades. Today, the remaining working reactor at Three Mile Island, Unit 1, faces new challenges, including cheaper competition in a rapidly shifting energy grid. Unit 1 at the plant, near Harrisburg, Pa., is slated to close later this year.

But mounting concerns about climate change, and the need for zero-carbon power, are also driving a new push to keep Three Mile Island and other nuclear reactors open. It’s a turnaround few would have foreseen in the chaotic days after the accident.

Confusion and fear

On March 28, 1979, Three Mile Island’s Unit 2 reactor suffered a partial meltdown after a pump stopped sending water to the steam generators that removed heat from the reactor core. The accident was a combination of human error, design deficiencies and equipment failures.

The accident happened around 4 a.m. on a Wednesday, but it took several days before people understood the severity of the problem, as public officials struggled to explain what was happening. By Friday, then-Gov. Dick Thornburgh recommended that pregnant women and young children evacuate.

Jack Herbein, then vice president of generation for Metropolitan Edison, the company that operated Three Mile Island in 1979, takes questions from reporters outside the plant’s visitors center the afternoon of the accident.Courtesy of the Historical Society of Dauphin County

Many more people chose to leave. By the end of the weekend, an estimated 80,000 people had fled south-central Pennsylvania. Schools and businesses closed. Local banks started running out of cash.

Joyce Corradi was a young mother of four, running a day care out of her home in Middletown, a few miles from the plant. Her most vivid memory is pulling out of her driveway, wondering if her life would ever be the same.

“I took our marriage certificate and I took our children’s birth certificates,” Corradi says. “I was concerned that, if in the confusion things really got bad, that I could prove those were my children and that we could at least be together.”

Reporters wait for updates outside the Three Mile Island Observation Center, across the street from the plant, after the partial meltdown in 1979. The accident quickly became global news.Courtesy of The Historical Society of Dauphin County

She would return 10 days later. A small amount of radiation was released, but in the end, it wasn’t a disaster. In 1985, Three Mile Island reopened, minus the one damaged reactor. Although some of her friends moved away, Corradi still lives in the same house, but feels the plant always looming in the background.

“It’s kind of like living with a giant in your neighborhood,” she says. “You know it’s there. You know it could cause you problems, but you live in an uneasy compromise.”

A new challenge to the nuclear industry

That compromise is being tested, as the nuclear industry faces new challenges, including high operating costs, stagnant demand for electricity and competition from cheaper natural gas and renewable energy.

Chicago-based Exelon, the current owner of Three Mile Island’s still-functional Unit 1 reactor, says the plant has been losing money for years. The company plans to close it this fall, 15 years before its operating license expires.

David Fein, Exelon’s senior vice president of state governmental and regulatory affairs, says the company is still hoping the state government can step in to keep it open. He argues that losing so much carbon-free electricity would be a major blow to efforts to combat climate change.

“It’s something that, if we hope to do anything about it, then we have to preserve all the nation’s nuclear power stations,” says Fein.

Nuclear power provides about 20 percent of the nation’s electricity. Yet across the country, nearly a third of existing nuclear plants are either unprofitable or scheduled to close.

Explore more coverage of the 40th anniversary of the Three Mile Island accident from WITF, PennLive/The Patriot-News, and PA Post.

There is only one nuclear plant under construction in the country, in Georgia, but it’s years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget. Energy Secretary Rick Perry visited the construction site last week to announce $3.7 billion in federal loan guarantees for the project.

The working cooling towers of Exelon Generation Unit 1 in the foreground are emitting water vapor. The dormant cooling towers are from Unit 2, which was permanently damaged in the 1979 accident.Courtesy of Exelon

Pennsylvania’s five existing nuclear plants account for about 93 percent of the state’s carbon-free power. Mark Szybist, a senior attorney with Natural Resources Defense Council, says that without new policies, nuclear plant closures could lead to more greenhouse gas emissions.

“We’re at a point where if nuclear retires immediately, we would probably replace it with natural gas generation because we haven’t sufficiently planned to replace it with something cleaner,” he says.

Climate change and the push for zero-carbon energy

All of this has led to a big lobbying effort to keep nuclear plants online. In recent years, other states — including New York, Illinois, New Jersey and Connecticut — have given billions of dollars in subsidies to keep their nuclear plants open. Ohio is consideringdoing the same.

Christina Simeone, a senior fellow with the University of Pennsylvania’s Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, thinks governments should step in.

“Once you close a nuclear plant, that’s a permanent result,” she says. “We’re going to lose a significant amount of zero-carbon power.”

If we lose one or more of these plants we might as well forget about all the time and money we’ve invested in wind and solar.

Thomas Mehaffie, Pennsylvania state representative

In addition to Three Mile Island, FirstEnergy’s Beaver Valley plant near Pittsburgh is also slated for an early retirement — in 2021. Republican state Rep. Thomas Mehaffie recently introduced a bill to try to keep the Pennsylvania plants open.

“If we lose one or more of these plants we might as well forget about all the time and money we’ve invested in wind and solar,” says Mehaffie.

But his bill faces major opposition, from groups like the growing natural gas industry, which stands to gain if nuclear plants close, and the AARP, which says the move would hurt ratepayers.

Carbon pricing

A report published last year by Pennsylvania’s bipartisan Nuclear Energy Caucuscalled carbon pricing the best “long-term” solution for the state to address the economic woes of nuclear plants.

The regional grid operator for the Mid-Atlantic and parts of the Midwest, PJM, has also said putting a price on carbon is the best way for state governments to address the climate change concerns that have emerged amid their nuclear debates.

As someone who lived through the Three Mile Island accident, Joyce Corradi would be happier to see the plant close. But because the U.S. still has no real plan to deal with its radioactive nuclear waste, it will still be stored at the plant, sitting in her town indefinitely.

Even today, she avoids driving by the plant’s large, gray cooling towers.

“I find that really, 40 years down the road,” she says, “I’m still sitting on top of a plant that has all the waste, a plant that cannot sell its electricity, and there’s still no real answers.”

For more on this story and video go to; https://www.npr.org/2019/03/28/707000226/40-years-after-a-partial-nuclear-meltdown-a-new-push-to-keep-three-mile-island-o