Energy Solutions restructures amid funding concerns over contract.
The company dismantling the Zion nuclear power plant said Tuesday that it will restructure, reducing its annual costs by $35 million and resulting in the layoffs of 265 people.
Utah-based EnergySolutions Inc. has said its expects to spend a decade taking apart the plant, which sits on the shores of Lake Michigan and has been closed since 1998. Plant owner Chicago-based Exelon Corp. handed over the plant keys to EnergySolutions, along with an approximately $800 million trust fund paid into by ratepayers, to handle the decommissioning.
Mark Walker, a spokesman for EnergySolutions, said the job cuts are not expected to affect the Zion project or the removal and shipment of low-level radioactive materials from the site to Clive, Utah. “What we’re doing with other portions of the company will not have an impact on the work we are doing at Zion,” Walker said.
The Zion project had come under scrutiny over concerns about a dwindling cushion between the costs of decommissioning and the money available in the trust fund. The project is protected by a $200 million letter of credit, which rolls over to Exelon if EnergySolutions is unable to pay for any budget overruns with cash or debt.
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