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Biden’s $1.5 Billion Deal To Resurrect A Nuclear Plant Is Facing Fresh Drama

An ex-employee at Michigan’s Palisades plant is throwing a wrench in the first-of-a-kind revival plan.

Huffington Post, By Alexander C. Kaufman, Aug 9, 2024, 

The United States’ effort to reverse the permanent shutdown of a nuclear station for the first time hit a potential snag this week when an ex-employee at the facility went public with safety concerns about reopening the 53-year-old power plant.

Now the company that owns the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station on Michigan’s southwest coast is hitting back at what it called a series of “assumptions” and “inaccurate statements” from Alan Blind, a former engineering director…………………

In an unusually pointed 1,000-word rebuttal, Holtec said “significant investments, upgrades, and modifications were made by the prior owner to dramatically and measurably improve plant reliability” in the nine years after Blind’s departure. The company said the process is “on schedule” and announced at a public meeting this month that the plant is on track to reopen in October 2025.

But Blind cast doubt on Holtec’s proposed budget and timeline for restoring Palisades given that no U.S. reactor has ever come back online after ceasing operations ahead of a planned demolition.

Resurrecting the Palisades plant is among the most closely watched nuclear projects in the nation now that construction is finally finished on the only two new reactors built from scratch in a generation.

While atomic energy is considered by far the most reliable source of carbon-free electricity ever harnessed, the steep cost and decade-long timelines for constructing new plants limit the potential for nuclear power to meet Americans’ surging electricity demand, stem rising blackouts and slash planet-heating pollution from fossil fuels.

New laws Congress passed over the past three years made billions of dollars available to the nuclear energy industry to extend the operating lives of existing plants, build new reactors and catch up with Russia and China on next-generation nuclear power technologies.

The money is going out. In January, the Biden administration put up $1.1 billion to keep California’s last nuclear power station from closing. Two months later, the Department of Energy offered Holtec a loan worth $1.5 billion to make Palisades the first U.S. nuclear plant to ever come back online after shutting down in preparation for decommissioning……..https://www.huffpost.com/entry/palisades-nuclear-plant-michigan-drama_n_66b676a2e4b044cc5e99b7fc

August 10, 2024 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Uncategorized