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Holtec, a producer of nuclear reactor tools, has an unprecedented plan to restart the shuttered Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan. Thanks to a conditional mortgage assure from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, that plan is now $1.52 billion nearer to actuality.
If the mortgage is granted (topic to Holtec assembly closing circumstances) and the 800-megawatt reactor situated on Lake Michigan is repowered, it could be the primary nuclear plant within the U.S. to reopen after being closed for decommissioning. Surprisingly, it could be simply the second or third reactor to restart within the historical past of world civil nuclear energy, in keeping with Mycle Schneider, lead creator of the World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2023, in an interview with Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
Nuclear power provides slightly below 20 % of U.S. electrical energy, a share that has barely budged in current a long time because the nation has struggled to construct the few new reactors which have been proposed. The common age of the reactors within the nation’s 93-unit fleet is 42 years previous.
As the nation pushes to decarbonize its energy grid, nuclear advocates are urging the U.S. to reinvest within the power supply, regardless of its baggage round value and timing overruns and environmental considerations. Repowering Palisades would symbolize critical progress for nuclear power within the U.S., but it surely gained’t be a simple path forward.
Holtec bought Palisades a month after it shut down with plans to mothball the positioning, however plans modified. Now the agency, which focuses on nuclear waste administration and decommissioning (versus rebuilding and working nuclear vegetation), intends to revive the plant as an alternative. Holtec plans to get the facility plant restarted by the tip of 2025, a breathtakingly aspirational goal given nuclear’s historical past of lacking building and value targets.
The Palisades plant was closed by utility Entergy in May 2022 as a consequence of monetary points after working for greater than a half-century. And whereas the plant had a sturdy operational efficiency file in recent times, it additionally has a sobering historical past of shutdowns as a consequence of failures of crucial tools, in addition to damaged gasoline rods and fuel-spill incidents. The website was shut down for the ultimate time a few days forward of schedule as a consequence of considerations in regards to the reliability of a key piece of apparatus.
When it was working at its peak, the plant offered greater than 600 high-paying jobs, many unionized. If restarted, the plant may drive as much as $363 million in regional financial affect, in keeping with Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat. That’s why Whitmer and a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers again resurrecting the retired reactor. Local enterprise house owners and residents are “largely supportive” of the plan as properly, in keeping with native information website MLive. The state’s 2024 finances devotes $150 million to the mission.
