One of those plants is Clifty Creek located near Madison, Indiana. Clifty Creek provides almost all of its generating capacity to power the uranium enrichment facility in Piketon, Ohio. An additional 9 percent of Clifty Creek is owned by Ohio-based Cinergy. Nitrogen oxide is an ozone precursor. Once it reacts with sunlight, it forms ground-level ozone.
Sulfur dioxide reacts in the atmosphere to form acid rain.
In addition, Clifty Creek is responsible for almost ten million tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually. So, the next time you see an ad placed by American Electric Power and their nuclear power friends about the environmentally benign nature of nuclear power, remember Clifty Creek and the fact that the nuclear power industry could not survive without coal-fired power plants. Obviously, the aggressive pro-nuclear power campaign mounted by American Electric Power and its allies ignores the downside of nuclear power. The costs of building, maintaining and decommissioning nuclear power plants led to a revolt by large industrial customers against having to pay for nuclear power. Their objections have moved the country closer to allowing customer choice with regard to electric power companies so that, in theory, industrial and residential customers can seek out the lowest electric rates possible.