NRC begins environmental impact assessment for Palisades re-start in Michigan
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has initiated an environmental review of the potential impacts of a modernization of the Palisades nuclear power plant in Covert Township, western Michigan.
Palisades owner Holtec International is diligently pursuing a plan to restart power production at Palisades, a nuclear power plant on the shores of Lake Michigan that was shut down on May 20, 2022. If the company succeeds, it would be the first American nuclear power plant to come back online after a shutdown.
The commission held a meeting in Benton Harbor on Thursday, where neighbors, environmentalists, local officials and others expressed concerns about the safety of restarting the 53-year-old plant or offered support for the potential jobs and largely carbon-free energy the plant would provide.
Florida-based Holtec has received state and federal funding for its plan to bring new energy to Palisades, including a $1.5 billion loan offer from the U.S. Department of Energy and $150 million from the state budget for the coming fiscal year.
The company filed a series of applications with the NRC designed to pave the way for restarting the plant, including requests to refuel the reactor vessel, transfer ownership from Holtec Decommissioning International to Palisades Energy, LLC, and amend its license to support the resumption of electricity production.
The NRC and the Department of Energy’s credit bureau are reviewing these applications under the National Environmental Policy Act. The environmental assessment will focus on how the plant’s renewal could affect water quality, air quality, human health, radioactive waste and other aspects of the environment, said Laura Willingham, NRC environmental project manager.
“I want to emphasize that our review includes safety aspects in addition to the environmental impact assessment and that the restart of Palisades will not be approved without also considering safety criteria and inspections,” she said.
The environmental impact assessment will determine whether or not the plant’s renewal will have significant impacts on the environment. If the agency concludes that significant impacts are likely, it will conduct a more thorough assessment called an environmental impact statement.
The NRC declined to support Holtec’s proposal to invoke a “categorical exclusion” rather than conduct an environmental impact assessment, which would have meant that repowering the plant would not have a significant environmental impact.
State and government provide money for the restart of Palisades
Restarting power production at Palisades was not Holtec’s stated goal when it purchased the plant from Entergy in 2022. The company initially filed documents with the NRC promising to permanently shut down operations at the plant and remove fuel from the reactor vessel.
The company signaled its plans to restart the plant later that year instead by applying for a federal loan program designed to provide financial support to nuclear power plants that generate carbon-free electricity and play a central role in meeting state and federal climate goals. Holtec received a loan offer earlier this year.
The company has also received support from high-ranking Michigan politicians, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who touted the state’s support for Palisades in a social media post on X on Thursday.
Commentators express concerns about the Palisades plan
As part of its environmental review, the NRC is seeking input on what the environmental review should include. A panel of NRC officials took hours of comments from participants in Thursday’s meeting.
Kathryn Barnes, a member of the anti-nuclear group Don’t Waste Michigan, said Holtec was not qualified to operate because the company had never operated a nuclear power plant before.
She also criticized other participants at the meeting for calling nuclear energy “clean” energy because it requires fossil fuels to extract, transport and refine. She also called Palisades a “ticking time bomb” because of its age and wear and tear.
“You should never take that big a risk to start it (again),” Barnes said.
Others, including Democratic Rep. Joey Andrews of St. Joseph, praised Palisades’ potential to boost the local economy by creating hundreds of additional jobs and also provide a steady supply of electricity while heavily polluting coal-fired power plants close.
Andrews said Palisades is critical to meeting Michigan’s requirement for utilities to generate 100 percent of their electricity from “clean” energy, including nuclear, by 2050.
“I can’t stress enough how important this is to both achieving our climate goals and the sustainability of our communities here in southwest Michigan,” he said.
The commission also sent letters this month to more than a dozen federal, state and local environmental, health and economic development officials informing them of Thursday’s meeting and providing them with information on how to submit comments on the potential restart of the plant.
Comments will be accepted until July 29. They can be emailed to [email protected], submitted online through regulations.gov, or mailed to:
Administrative Office, P.O. Box: TWFN-7-A60MATTN: Program Management, Announcements, and Editorial U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001
A draft of the environmental impact assessment will be available for public review in January, the NRC said in its documents. There will also be an opportunity for public comment on this draft.
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