White House announces $2.8B to support historic restart of Palisades Nuclear Power Plant
COVERT, Mich. (WNDU) - The Biden administration has finalized a $2.8 billion financial package to fund what is being called a “clean energy comeback.”
The federal loans would pay for the restoration and resumption of service at the Palisades nuclear plant in Covert.
It includes the approval of a previously announced $1.52 billion loan to Holtec International to help bring the 800-megawatt plant back online after it was shut down in May of 2022 and another $1.3 billion loan for Wolverine Power Cooperative and Hoosier Energy to help reduce the cost of electricity.
Palisades was shut down in May of 2022. It could become the first plant in U.S. history to be recommissioned after being decommissioned. According to our sister station WOOD-TV, the plant would be allowed to operate until at least 2051.
“After months of hard work, Palisades has taken another step towards re-powering and providing desperately needed baseload energy to our state’s grid,” said State Rep. Pauline Wendzel (R-Watervliet), who is the Republican leader of the House Energy, Communications, and Technology Committee, in a news release obtained by our reporting partners at The Herald-Palladium. “Fueled by Michigan’s unwavering grit, innovation, and determination, we’re one step closer towards securing our legacy as a global leader in technology, discovery, and innovation.”
Mike Bailey has worked at Palisades for nearly three decades and counting.
“I stayed on as part of the shutdown crew with a plan of working a few more years and then looking on to somewhere else in the industry.”
Officials with the Biden administration toured the plant on Monday to mark the occasion and to celebrate a “real comeback story.”
The next step in the restart process requires passing a series of NRC safety inspections that’ll be used to decide the fate of a request for an operating license probably in May or June of next year. Holtec hopes to restart the nuclear plant by next October.
A green light for the project would create some 600 jobs and involve the re-hiring of some familiar faces.
“I brought a lot of those people back, just the nature of my role that I have,” said Mike Bailey. “And as I go through the interview process, I ask, ‘why do you want to come to Palisades? And the number one answer I get is, ‘it’s historic what we’re doing.’”
Additionally, the loan guarantee will support more than 1,000 jobs during the facility’s regularly scheduled refueling and maintenance periods every 18 months.
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