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COVERT TOWNSHIP, MI – A last-ditch effort to restart the Palisades Nuclear Plant has failed.
The proposal to restart the nuclear power plant along Lake Michigan was contingent on approval from the federal government, which was denied last week.
The plant on the shores of Lake Michigan shut down its nuclear reactors for the last time May 20. Holtec International bought the plant June 28, with the goal of decommissioning the plant by 2041.
Holtec applied for U.S. Department of Energy’s Civilian Nuclear Credit program, which would allow them to restart the plant. That application was denied by the federal agency, Holtec announced Friday, Nov. 18.
The closure was in part because of financial issues and because fuel is running out, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said previously. The shutdown was announced in 2017.
“We fully understood that what we were attempting to do, restarting a shuttered nuclear plant, would be both a challenge and a first for the nuclear industry,” Holtec said Monday, Nov. 21, in an email statement. “While the DOE’s decision is not the outcome many had hoped for, we entered this process committed to working with our federal, state, and community partners to see if the plant could be repowered to return to service as a provider of safe, reliable, and carbon-free generation.”
Whitmer supported the application. In April, Whitmer asked for federal dollars to keep the plant open in Van Buren County.
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