Associated Press | Chicago-based Exelon Corp. says it will shut down the oldest nuclear power plant in the U.S., rather than build cooling towers mandated by environmental regulators in New Jersey. Exelon says the $800 million that it would cost to build the towers is more than the 40-year-old Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station is worth.

But environmentalists say the job could be done for about $200 million.

Earlier this year, New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection required the plant to build one or more cooling towers instead of relying on water drawn from the Oyster Creek in Lacey Township in New Jersey to cool the reactor.

The state says that process kills billions of shrimp and tens of thousands of fish, crabs and clams each year.