Union official: If Entergy won't run FitzPatrick nuke, maybe someone else will?

SCRIBA, N.Y. – Union leaders who represent FitzPatrick nuclear workers say it makes no sense for the state to allow the Oswego County plant to close, and they urge officials to find a way to keep it running.

 

Ted Skerpon, president of IBEW Local 97, said closing FitzPatrick will increase reliance on out-of-state power, reduce fuel diversity, and make it more difficult for New York to meet its carbon-reduction goals.

 

Skerpon said it's not too late to save FitzPatrick, especially if a new owner could be persuaded to take it over by February, in time to order fuel for a September 2016 refueling outage.

 

Skerpon and others have suggested that the New York Power Authority, which sold the plant to Entergy 15 years ago, could acquire the plant and keep it running. Perhaps, Skerpon speculated, the power authority could hire Exelon Corp. to run FitzPatrick.