Holtec International has submitted another application to the U.S. Department of Energy for funds to restart the Palisades nuclear power plant in Van Buren County. Holtec spokesperson Patrick O’Brien tells us after the company was denied a grant through the Civil Nuclear Credit program, it decided to instead seek funding through the Department of Energy loan office. O’Brien says it would be of benefit to the region and the state to keep Palisades operating.
“It’s clean, carbon free baseload power,” O’Brien said. “We’ve been very pleased with the support locally, at the state and federal level, encouraging us to go forward on this. So, we did apply last week to the Department of Energy to repower Palisades. That broad based support was really the reason we did so, recognizing the benefits and the importance to provide Michigan with safe, reliable energy and supporting the jobs.”
O’Brien says it would take more than $1 billion to get the plant back online. Holtec expects to get a response to its DOE request in a few months. If approved, there would be plenty of work to do at the plant before it could be repowered. There would be maintenance and staffing issues to work out, and O’Brien says a power purchase agreement that would enable the repayment of the loan would have to be arranged.
