Exelon Generation will shutter its Oyster Creek Generating Station in October 2018—more than a year before it is required to close the single-unit reactor as part of an agreement with the state of New Jersey.

Exelon agreed in 2010 to close the unit by December 2019—10 years before its license to operate expires—after it decided against installing a cooling tower technology required by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. On February 2, the company said it would permanently close the unit at the end of its current operating cycle in October. The revised schedule will allow Exelon to better manage resources in a market environment where fuel and maintenance costs are rising amid historically low power prices, it said.

Bryan Hanson, Exelon president and chief nuclear officer, noted in a press release that the company will offer a position to every employee at Oyster Creek that chose to stay with the company, and that the revised schedule would give the company time to do that.…

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