Nuclear Power Plant Shutting Down

CREATED Oct. 22, 2012

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  • Nuclear Power Plant Shutting Down Video by nbc26.com

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Kewaunee-- The Kewaunee Power Plant will be decommissioned and in six-months time, 650 people will be out of work. The news came out of nowhere, today. "It is a bad situation," said  Mike Augustian. He is a union rep for plant workers and he's still trying to piece together what happened. "Someone working out here, they called us and told us what was going on...And it was a shock to us."

Augustian's father worked at the plant. He knows that closing it can be life-changing. Some employees and their families may have no choice but to move away. "We lose this plant..It's a lot of jobs through the years, a lot of man-hours." Dominion officials say the plant's small size, remote location and falling energy prices makes it too expensive to keep the plant running.

Eventually, the federal government steps in to take the plant apart. Disassembling the plant will take years. Dominion says the shut down decision is final but Augstian still holds out hope. "I'd like to see this plant get sold to people that will run it, to keep the people here working"  There is a 60-year deadline to fully decommission the plant.