The owners of the Palisades nuclear plant in Southwest Michigan announced a historic milestone today - the plant has officially returned to operational status after being in decommissioning for three years.
It’s the first time in the U.S. that a decommissioning plant has returned to operations. The plant is still not generating electricity. But the status change means it can now receive new fuel to power the reactors once the final inspections and reassembly of the plant is complete. Holtec International, which owns Palisades, didn’t say how soon that would happen.
“When Palisades returns to service, it will produce more than 800 megawatts of safe, clean, and baseload electricity – enough to power over 800,000 homes and businesses,” the company wrote in its announcement Tuesday. “Beyond strengthening Michigan’s energy security, this achievement signals a historic first for the nuclear industry and reinforces the essential role of nuclear power in America’s energy future.”
The announcement comes after more than a year of work to convince federal regulators that the half-century old plant could be returned to service and operate safely. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission cleared the way for the restart in a series of approvals in late July.
The effort was supported at nearly every level of government. The federal government offered more than $1.5 billion in loan guarantees to fund the restart. The state of Michigan kicked in hundreds of millions more. Leaders in Covert township passed a resolution supporting the restart, and so did the city council in nearby South Haven.
But many residents in the area have pushed back on the plans, submitting comments to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission pointing out a history of safety violations at the plant in the early 2000s.
Alan Blind, a retired nuclear plant engineer who once worked at Palisades, is another person who spoke out, challenging the regulatory process for bringing back the plant, and questioning its safety.
Blind also filed petitions in July arguing that Palisades hasn’t met the safety requirements for reporting the status of the tubes connected to its steam generator, among other violations. He petitioned the NRC to stop Holtec from loading any new fuel into its reactors until other regulatory milestones are met.
In its announcement Tuesday, Holtec said it recently completed repairs on the steam generator tubes after finding problems during an inspection last year.
The company has said it plans to resume power operations sometime before the end of this year.
