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What the Millstone Nuclear Power Plant Means to Connecticut & New England

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The following is a guest post by Matt Crozat, Senior Director, Business Policy at NEI.

Matt Crozat
Occupying less than a square mile along the busy Northeast Corridor between New York and Boston, it’s easy to miss the Millstone Power Station. A new economic impact study released today by NEI documents just how important the two-unit Dominion plant is to Connecticut and the region. Indeed, if Millstone were lost it would be dearly missed.

Millstone, owned and operated by Dominion Resources, provides almost 60 percent of the electricity consumed in Connecticut, and adds nothing to the region’s air pollution. In fact, it displaces fossil-fired plants, which would pollute.

But its role is felt even more deeply when one considers the economic value the plant generates. There are 1,569 full-time employees at the plant, in Waterford, but the economic activity they create supports an additional 1,691 jobs in the state and beyond.

But Millstone’s main role isn’t to provide employment, it is to produce electricity. The Millstone Power Station generates over 17 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually which is enough to supply 2 million homes. This generation provides economic benefits to everyone in New England by keeping electricity prices low. Money that families aren’t spending on their power bill can be used for other goods and services that families need, and their spending helps the economy. This report estimates that Millstone provides an additional $1.6 billion in economic activity from lower electricity prices in Connecticut and New England which leads to almost 9,000 jobs across the region.

Each of the nuclear plants in the U.S. has significant economic impacts in their communities. NEI has produced economic benefits reports for Ohio, Illinois and Texas, to name a few. A longer list can be found here.
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