News In Brief

Planned Ohio nuclear plant to burn coal instead

Three Ohio utility companies announced Saturday they would convert a 97 percent completed nuclear power plant in nearby Moscow, Ohio, to a coal-fired facility. The decision marks the first time any nuclear project in the US has been converted to another energy source.

William Dickhoner, president of Cincinnati Gas & Electric Co., said the decision to convert was based largely on studies indicating it would cost less to take that step than to complete construction as a nuclear unit. The most optimistic projections for completion of the nuclear plant were March 1986, at an additional cost of $1.6 billion.