operation of its Exelon Nuclear business unit. According to Exelon Corporation, "many people are surprised when they learn that Three Mile Island is still making electricity, enough to power 800,000 households" from its undamaged and fully functional reactor unit 1. Exelon viewed the plant's economics of $44/MWh as challenging due to the low price of natural gas at $25/MWh. As of 2016, the average price of electricity in the area was $39/MWh. Closure On June 20, 2017, Exelon Generation, the owners of Three Mile Island's Unit 1, sent to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission a formal notice of its intention to shut down the plant on September 30, 2019, unless the Pennsylvania legislature rescued the nuclear industry, which was struggling to compete as newfound natural gas resources drove down electricity prices. Exelon Generation's Senior Vice President Bryan Hanson noted that once Three Mile Island was closed, it could never be reopened for use again. Hanson explicitly stated the reason for the shutdown is because of the unprofitability of Unit 1. Unit 1 has lost the company over $300 million over the last half-decade despite it being one of Exelon's best-performing power plants. Shut down of Unit 1 can go in two possible directions, the first being the immediate dismantlement after the radioactive fuel has been moved away from the plant. The dismantlement can proceed after the spent fuel is removed from the pool, put into storage casks, and the casks are transferred to the ISFSI pad for storage until the DOE takes them away to a DOE repository. Dismantling the plant this way will take anywhere from 8 to 10 years. The second option Exelon could take is the long-term storage, which involves mothballing the plant and letting the radiation decay for up to 60 years on its own to a harmless level before completely dismantling the buildings. The advantage to the long-term storage is the lack of radiation when the dismantlement would begin but the disadvantage would be the possible lack of qualified workers at the time of dismantlement. Exelon would also have to pay for limited maintenance and security of the plant over the potential 60 years. The entirety of the spent fuel will be moved to the Londonderry Township facility, which is another process that could take decades to complete. About 70 state legislators signed the industry-inspired Nuclear Caucus but made no financial commitments. In April 2019, Exelon