Credit: (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) File photo: Salem Nuclear Power Plant in Lower Alloways Creek Township In a reprise of a debate from three years ago over lucrative subsidies to keep New Jersey’s three nuclear power plants from closing, backers and critics squared off over whether to keep charging ratepayers for the $300 million annual payments. In two virtual public hearings Monday, the two sides once again portrayed the financial viability of the PSEG Nuclear units in starkly contrasting terms. PSEG executives argued the plants are in worse fiscal shape than they were in 2018 when a divided Board of Public Utilities voted to award the initial subsidies to avert their closing.