Zion Nuclear Power Station

Zion Nuclear Power Station was the third dual-reactor nuclear power plant in the Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) network and served Chicago and the northern quarter of Illinois. The plant was built in 1973, and the first unit started producing power in December, 1973. The second unit came online in September, 1974. This power generating station is located on 257 acres of Lake Michigan coastline, in the city of Zion, Lake County, Illinois. It is approximately 40 direct-line miles north of Chicago, Illinois and 42 miles south of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The Zion Nuclear Power Station was retired on February 13, 1998.Citation | title = Zion Units 1 & 2 | date = 2008-04-08 | url = http://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/decommissioning/power-reactor/zion-nuclear-power-station-units-1-2.html | accessdate = 2008-06-29.] The plant had not been in operation since February, 1997, after a control-room operator accidentally shut down Reactor 1 and then tried to restart it without following procedures.Fact|date=June 2008 Reactor 2 was already shut down for refueling at the time of the incident. ComEd concluded that the plant could not produce competitively priced power because it would have cost $435 million to order steam generators which would not pay for themselves before the plant's operating license expired in 2013. This analysis was predicated on no license extension which at the time was the norm, however since then multiple plants have replaced steam generators and extended the license by 20 years. The current desire not to restart the plants has been characterized as welfare for the local unions by providing for over ten years of employment tearing down the plants.

All nuclear fuel was removed permanently from the reactor vessel and placed in the plant's on-site spent fuel pool by March 9, 1998. Plans are to keep the facility in long-term safe storage (SAFSTOR) until unit 2's operating license expires on November 14, 2013. Decontamination and dismantlement are to begin after this date. The estimated date for closure is December 31, 2026.

The power plant is the tallest building in Lake County, IL.Citation | last = Zahorik | first = Ralph | title = Public weighs in on Zion nuclear plant proposal | newspaper = Chicago Tribune | date = 2008-06-20 | url = http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-zion-plant-20-jun20,0,1118967.story.]

	Unit 1	Unit 2
Operating status	Permanently closed	Permanently closed
Reactor type	Pressurized waterCitation | title = Zion | date = 2007-08-09 | url = http://www.nukeworker.com/nuke_facilities/North_America/usa/NRC_Facilities/Region_3/zion/index.shtml | accessdate = 2008-06-29]	Pressurized water
Reactor manufacturer	Westinghouse	Westinghouse
Generation capacity	1,040 megawatts	1,040 megawatts
Operational date	June, 1973	December, 1973
Closure date	January, 1998	January, 1998

References