Warren criticized the commissioners for not asking any Duke officials about information contained in the study, or inquiring further when director Gray mentioned a letter from NEIL addressing a “serious situation” at Crystal River. The commission largely avoided the topic in its pre-merger hearings.

If repair estimates for Crystal River run too high, the other option would be decommissioning the plant. According to NC WARN, a smaller nuclear plant in Connecticut cost $1.2 billion to decommission more than 15 years ago. Decommissioning a nuclear plant can take more than 10 years to complete.

As the hearings concluded, Chairman Edward Finley Jr. asserted the commission’s right to rescind its approval of the merger—a prospect deemed unthinkable by many financial analysts earlier in the month.

Of that possibility, Warren said: “It’s less of a longshot than it was a few days ago. The merger is a bad deal for the people of the state, and we’re working to derail it.”