Debate unfolds over what to do with Zion power plant site

Nov 3 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Dan Hinkel Chicago Tribune

If everything goes according to plan, most of the 257-acre site of Zion's retired nuclear power station will be ready for a new use by 2020.

Under the plan, the decision about how that property might be used will fall largely to Exelon, which will retake control of the swath of lakefront land after the plant's decommissioning.

Some in Zion have yet to forgive Exelon for the plant's closing in 1998, and its future use seems unlikely to generate any less controversy.

Milling around an open house recently hosted by EnergySolutions, the company hired to decommission the plant over the next 10 years, Illinois Dunesland Preservation Society President Paul Kakuris said he would like to see the plant's footprint match the two surrounding portions of Illinois Beach State Park.

His group would support legislation to compel the eventual relocation of the acres of concrete casks that will store spent nuclear fuel and other highly radioactive materials on the plant's site, at least until the federal government finds a site for the long-term storage once planned for Yucca Mountain in Nevada. A future governor could condemn the site and return it to parkland, Kakuris said.

Kakuris questioned the safety of storing the waste near Lake Michigan, a concern shared by other residents and interest groups. He worries about a terrorist attack or a leak into the lake.

"It's one of the most valuable ecological resources in the United States," he said.

Nancy Thorner, of Lake Bluff, was one of the only other attendees at the open house who wasn't affiliated with EnergySolutions, Exelon or a regulatory agency. Twelve years after the plant went dark, she still would like Exelon or another company to produce nuclear energy at the plant. She believes Exelon may have retired the plant to keep energy prices high.

"They're wasting it forever," she said. "It could be open now if they wanted."

Reopening the plant is not feasible, said Exelon spokesman Marshall Murphy, who added that the plant was shut down because it was determined that it could not efficiently produce energy.

Though opinions on the land's future use may proliferate as 2020 approaches, Exelon has not decided how the property might be used, Murphy said. He cited both recreational and commercial uses as possibilities.

dhinkel@tribune.com