Fire shuts down Oyster Creek transformer

by: Jason Springer

Mon Feb 02, 2009 at 06:58:54 AM EST

At least things seemed to work the way they were supposed to:

Exelon Nuclear says the fire was in one of the Oyster Creek nuclear plant's two main transformers.
The company says the unit automatically shut down and there was no threat to the public. No one was injured.
Plant operators declared an unusual event at 10:11 p.m. Sunday. The company says the fire was extinguished 16 minutes later and the event ended at 11:37 p.m.

Two months ago, the plant was shut down because of an electrical problem. In that case too, the automatic shut down worked as planned. The plant's license expires this April and Excelon has been trying to renew it with the Nuclear Regulatory commission for another twenty years. I can't imagine this is what they wanted as a lead in to the decision.

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Oyster Creek still shut down

by: Jason Springer

Mon Dec 01, 2008 at 05:44:21 PM EST

Not good:

The Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station remains shut down following a weekend problem with one of its two main electrical transformers.
Just after 9 p.m. Friday, an electrical fault occurred in one of the transformers that converts Oyster Creek's output for use on the grid that serves the region.
That caused the plant to shut down automatically.

Excelon hasn't been able to give an estimate of when the plant will be back online, but electricity traders speculated that it could take a week for the plant to return to service.

Oyster Creek is the oldest nuclear reactor in the country having opened in 1969. It's license expires in April of 2009 and Excelon has been trying to renew their license with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for another twenty years since 2005.

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Excelon to NJ: Take it or Leave it

by: Jason Springer

Tue Aug 01, 2006 at 07:38:06 PM EDT

The Chairman of Excelon Corp is tired of waiting for the Board of Public Utilities(BPU) to approve its merger with PSE&G. He's decided to issue an ultimatum according to today's Courier Post...

Calling negotiations between Exelon and PSEG "long and painful," John W. Rowe, chairman, president and CEO of Exelon Corp., Monday gave the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities an ultimatum: Take our very generous offer within the "next week or so," or leave it.

He went on to say...

"We have to be wanted here. We know we can't badger or bluff our way in." On the other hand, the CEO added, there comes a time "when the fruit start to rot on the tree."

Below the fold you can see what else they added to sweeten the pot on their "Very Generous offer", but i still don't think this is a good deal for NJ ratepayers. You want to talk about a monopoly, this new company will be the nation's largest utility company with 7 million electric and 2 million natural gas customers in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Illinois. If you think the merger is a good idea, tell me why because i have my doubts.

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