More than 200 TMI, Peach Bottom nuclear workers laid off, for now at least
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Brett Sholtis
Joe Ulrich / WITF
Exelon is planning to prematurely close Three Mile Island’s Unit One reactor in September 2019.
Exelon Corp. has laid off 296 contract workers at its three nuclear power plants in Pennsylvania, though it says those workers will be hired back under a new contractor.
At Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station in Delta, York County, 108 were affected, according to a notice filed with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry. At Three Mile Island Nuclear Station in Middletown, Dauphin County, 99 were affected. At Limerick Generating Station in Pottstown, Montgomery County, 89 were affected.
The workers were contracted through a Louisiana-based consulting company, Aptim. Those workers included welders, scaffolding builders and other skilled-trade positions, Exelon spokeswoman Lacey Dean said.
Exelon still needs contract workers, Dean said. However, Exelon has decided to switch from Aptim to another contractor, Allied Power Systems.
“We work with specialty contractors to support work at our stations and the number of contract workers has not changed,” Dean said.
Dean declined to provide details on the reason behind the change. “It’s a business decision,” she said. Aptim officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Three Mile Island is set to close in 2019 — years ahead of its license — after losing about $300 million over the past five years. For now, however, TMI still plans to hire back those 99 laid-off workers, Dean said.
“Those folks will be hired back on through the new contractor,” Dean said. “We still need the work until a certain point.”
Note: This story is part of a partnership between WITF and the York Daily Record
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