The Crystal River nuclear power plant will be retired, the parent company of Progress Energy said today, affecting about 600 employees and ending months of uncertainly over the facility's future.
The reactor has been offline since late 2009, when its concrete containment building cracked during a maintenance and upgrade project.
Officials with North Carolina-based Duke Energy, which owns Progress Energy, had said fixing the plant could take nearly three years and cost billions of dollars.
Company officials say fixing the plant could take nearly three years and cost billions of dollars.
Progress Energy spokeswoman Suzanne Grant tells WUSF the closing shouldn't affect plans to open another nuclear plant just across the Withlacoochee River from Crystal River, in neighboring Levy County.
