After the Department of Energy last week refused to fund a proposal to restart a recently-shuttered nuclear power plant in Michigan, the company in charge of the facility said it planned to move ahead with decommissioning, according to a spokesperson.
A Holtec International spokesperson confirmed to RadWaste Monitor Nov. 18 that DOE had rejected the company’s application for a federal bailout for Palisades Nuclear Generating Station. Despite that, the company “remains committed to helping the nuclear and energy industries meet challenges and find solutions here in Michigan and across the country,” the spokesperson said.
Holtec in September applied for a DOE grant under the agency’s civil nuclear credits program. The roughly $6 billion bailout, unveiled as part of the November 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, is aimed at propping up the aging U.S. nuclear fleet, of which the Covert, Mich., Palisades was a part.
Had DOE accepted the plant’s application for part of the $1.2-billion first-round payout, Holtec had said it would use the money to solicit potential buyers to restart Palisades. The plant shut down in May.
“We fully understood that what we were attempting to do, re-starting a shuttered nuclear plant, would be both a challenge and a first for the nuclear industry,” the Holtec spokesperson said Nov. 18. “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.”
Now, however, Holtec employees are focused “on the safe and timely decommissioning of Palisades to allow for potential reuse,” the spokesperson said.
Holtec acquired the Palisades plant from Entergy Corp. in June.
Meanwhile, DOE announced in a press release Monday that it had issued a conditional bailout to California’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant valued at around $1.1 billion. The agency did not identify any other plants receiving financial aid in its release.
