Mr. Malone said the company planned to abandon the plant eventually and build a new one on Long Island.

One would abandon the plant and move its assets to western Massachusetts.

Financial disaster seemed imminent when it abandoned the nuclear plant after spending $4.1 billion on it.

Mr. Catacosinos, he argued, would have performed better if he had cut a deal to abandon the plant a few years earlier.

But the commission said it recognized that Lilco could not just abandon the plant, if doing so would lead to its bankruptcy.

Government officials do not dispute that calculation, but they have argued that with the money already spent, it would be foolish to simply abandon the plant.

With today's decision, these analysts said, the onus of abandoning the plant will fall entirely on Lilco.

And the start-up raised the cost of abandoning the plant by $100 million, because even brief low-power operation created substantial radiation.

Both companies were thought to have taken these steps because of fears that a future SPD government would abandon the plant.

Lilco has successfully sued to recover tax money it paid before the utility was forced to abandon the plant.