nuclear-news

Owner of Palisades to reapply for taxpayer funding to reopen nuclear power plant

Riley Beggin, Hannah Mackay, The Detroit News, 19 Dec 22,

Holtec International, the owner of the Palisades nuclear plant near South Haven, will reapply for federal funding in an attempt to revive the shuttered plant.

The company applied for funds through the U.S. Energy Department’s Civil Nuclear Credit Program after the plant was officially shut down in May. It announced in November it had been denied.

The $6 billion program funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law aims to keep existing reactors around the country running. Applicants must demonstrate that they will be closed for economic reasons and that carbon emissions and air pollutants will rise if they are closed.

………….. Holtec acquired the plant from Entergy Nuclear last December and planned to decommission it.

The plan received scrutiny from Attorney General Dana Nessel and several environmental groups, which questioned whether the company had the finances to quickly and safely decommission the plant. The environmental groups also raised concerns it could threaten the Great Lakes if the company decided to ship nuclear waste to a storage facility out of state…………….

In the meantime, Holtec will continue decommissioning the plant, O’Brien added, with a focus on “managing the spent fuel removal from the spent fuel pool to dry cask storage.”

There would be hurdles to reopening. Palisades shut down more than a week early in May as “a conservative decision based on equipment performance,” U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Public Affairs Officer Prema Chandrathil said at the time. The control rod drive mechanism had a degrading seal.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission transferred Palisades’ license from Entergy to Holtec “for the purpose of decommissioning Palisades” on June 28, the NRC said. All fuel was removed from the reactor on June 13.

Holtec then applied in July for funding under the federal Civil Nuclear Credit Program. To qualify for credits, there must be “reasonable assurance” the reactor can be operated with its current license and pose no significant safety hazards. https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2022/12/19/palisades-nuclear-power-plant-to-reapply-for-federal-funding/69740779007/

December 19, 2022 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | politics, USA