DETROIT – A company that tears down closed nuclear power plants wants to do in Michigan what has never been done in the U.S.: restore a dead one to life.
Holtec Decommissioning International bought the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station last June for the stated purpose of dismantling it, weeks after previous owner Entergy shut it down. Fuel was removed from the reactor core. Federal regulators were notified of “permanent cessation of power operations.”
But with support from Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and leaders in the Lake Michigan community where Palisades was an economic driver for 50 years, Holtec soon kicked off a campaign to bring the plant back. The 800 megawatt facility had generated roughly 5% of the state’s electricity.
“Keeping Palisades open is critical for Michigan’s competitiveness and future economic development opportunities,” Whitmer said in a letter to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, herself a former Michigan governor, requesting federal funding for the restart.
Activists who long criticized Palisades as poorly maintained and dangerous don’t want it resurrected.
They note its years of mechanical problems, including what the Nuclear Regulatory Commission described as among the nation’s worst cases of nuclear fuel container weakening. A degrading seal on a device controlling the atomic reaction led Entergy to close the plant nearly two weeks earlier than planned in May 2022.
“This is uncharted risk territory,” said Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste specialist for a group called Beyond Nuclear, who vowed to “fight this proposal at every turn” after Holtec pitched it during a March 20 NRC meeting.
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