Dec. 09--Exelon Corp. is asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to allow it to operate its LaSalle County nuclear plant until the 2040s.
The company's filing Tuesday with the commission sets off a two-year process that will determine if the plant can safely continue operating another two decades beyond its generating units' licenses.
The plant's two nuclear reactors -- which generate enough electricity to power 2.3 million homes -- are operating under licenses set to expire in 2022 and 2023.
The plant's reactors began commercial operation in January 1984 and October 1984, respectively.
The NRC issues operating licenses for up to 40 years and allows the licenses to be renewed for an additional 20 years.
The average commercial reactor in the U.S. is about 33 years old, according to the Energy Information Administration. The oldest reactors are Oyster Creek in New Jersey and Nine Mile Point 1 in New York, which began commercial operation in December 1969.
LaSalle's twin nuclear reactors employ about 875 people 75 miles southwest of Chicago near Marseilles. About 48 percent of the electricity in Illinois comes from nuclear power.
Chicago-based Exelon said the application is the result of a two-year "review of existing maintenance and engineering programs to ensure the station is capable of maintaining the plant's state-of -- the-art systems over the extended license period."
The application is 2,100 pages and reviews more than 218,000 plant components, the company said.
Exelon, the parent company of Commonwealth Edison, operates six nuclear plants in Illinois.
In 2004, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission renewed the operating licenses for both units at Exelon's Dresden station for an additional 20 years, extending them to 2030 and 2031, and it also extended the licenses for Quad Cities to 2032.
Last year, Exelon applied to extend the operating licenses of its Byron and Braidwood stations. The Braidwood plant's reactors, about 60 miles southwest of Chicago, are licensed to operate until 2026 and 2027. The Byron plant, about 95 miles northwest of Chicago, also has two reactors, licensed until 2024 and 2026.
Exelon has not yet applied to extend the license for its Clinton Plant. That operating license is set to expire in 2026.
The company's nuclear plants have struggled with profitability in recent years under increasing competition from low-priced natural gas and wind power.
In light of proposed rules from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that seek to cut carbon dioxide emissions that come from the power sector, the company is pressing the state legislature to take up the issue this spring to ensure it is rewarded financially for its nuclear power plants, which produce electricity without emitting carbon.
The LaSalle county plant has not been named by either the company or analysts as one of the plants that is struggling with profitability.
Exelon pays $24 million in annual property taxes for the station.
jwernau@tribpub.com
Twitter @littlewern
