Since last March, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has extended the 40-year operating licenses for five reactors an additional 20 years. The operators of five more reactors have applied for license extensions, and an additional 28 are expected to seek extensions within the next five years, the institute said. Southern California Edison has not decided whether it will seek a license extension for San Onofre's two remaining reactors, Units 2 and 3, Golden said. Both are scheduled to be shut down in 2022. In those reactors that obtain license extensions, utilities see new value, and a profitable future.
Environmentalists see an avoidable danger.
Critical components in a nuclear power plant, including the reactor pressure vessel that holds nuclear fuel and the thousands of steam generator tubes that circulate heated and irradiated water, endure extreme stresses and degrade over time. New sales, new worries With license extensions, nuclear power plants are now seen by buyers as profit centers. Six commercial nuclear reactors have been sold since mid-1999, and the sale of eight reactors is pending, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute. The merger of several big utilities has consolidated ownership of commercial nuclear reactors. The marriage of Commonwealth Edison-Unicom in Illinois and PECO Energy Co. in Pennsylvania in October created Exelon Corp. and placed 17 reactors under one corporate roof.