The plant's original operator was
Wisconsin Public Service and it was owned by
Wisconsin Public Service Corporation (59%) and
Alliant Energy (41%). From 2000 to July 2005, the plant was operated by
Nuclear Management Company, of
Hudson, Wisconsin. The plant was then sold to
Dominion Resources of Richmond, Virginia. In 2008, Dominion applied to the NRC for an extension of its operating license for an additional 20 years. On October 22, 2012, Dominion Resources announced they would shut down and decommission the plant in mid-2013. Dominion's chairman and CEO said "the decision was based purely on economics. Dominion was not able to move forward with our plan to grow our nuclear fleet in the Midwest to take advantage of economies of scale". Lower natural gas costs and resultant lower electricity prices created an electricity market in which the plant could not compete. The plant came offline permanently on May 7, 2013. Plans for decommissioning were uncertain: as a private owner rather than a public utility, Dominion could not rely on charges imposed on utility customers by state regulators; however, the firm had a substantial reserve fund earmarked for this purpose and a cause of action against the
Department of Energy for failure to remove spent fuel. There was also the chance that the energy market might improve due to economic or political changes. On July 15, 2017, as part of decommissioning effort, the remaining fuel assemblies were successfully transferred to 24 Magnastor
casks. Pool-to-pad work was completed in 23 weeks. The entire used fuel inventory from nearly four decades of electricity generation at Kewaunee is represented by the 24 Magnastor systems and 14 legacy Nuhoms systems. An agreement to acquire the site and complete the decommissioning activities was reached between Dominion and EnergySolutions of Salt Lake City, UT in May 2021. EnergySolutions had previously completed the decommissioning of the
La Crosse Boiling Water Reactor, Wisconsin's first commercial nuclear facility. The sale of the plant was approved by the federal government in March 2022 as well as by the
Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC) in June 2022. Prior plant owners
WPSC and
WP&L were given right of first refusal (ROFR) to repurchase the non-operational site, but both utilities waived this right during the PSC proceedings. Dating back to 2001,
peregrine falcons nested at the facility, near the top of the containment structure. At least 53 young were produced in that time (2.4 young per year). The nest was taken over by great horned owls in 2022 and has since been deconstructed. == Electrical production (historical) ==