PGE decides to close plant now, not in 1996

On January 4, two months and a day after the Trojan nuclear power reactor survived two ballot initiatives that sought to have the 1095-MWe pressurized water reactor closed immediately, the board of directors of Portland General Electric Company voted to do what those initiatives had wanted done. Trojan went off line on November 9 because of a leak in a steam generator tube. It will not return to service ever again, even though PGE had originally planned to keep running the plant until 1996. The utility announced that immediate closure was now the least-cost choice for ratepayers, mainly because of uncertainty over what would have to be done at the plant to satisfy the Nuclear Regulatory Commission - within which, according to PGE, there was a scientific disagreement over the adequacy of the plant's steam generators to support operation until 1996. PGE has not yet firmed up its decommissioning plan for Trojan. Also, at this writing, there had been no indication whether the absence of Trojan might improve the chances for completion of the region's two mothballed nuclear projects, Washington Public Power Supply System's WNP-1 and -3