(Source: MIRS.news, Published 06/29/23) Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s hope to restart a decommissioned nuclear power plant in Van Buren County could happen, but it could cost way more than the $150 million lawmakers put into the budget Wednesday and it could take a long time.
Even with the money, there are a number of steps that need to happen, including finding an operator, fabricating new nuclear fuel, getting a power-purchase agreement, hiring staff and getting approved by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), said Holtec International Government Affairs and Communications Director Patrick O’Brien, the company that now owns the powered-down Palisades nuclear power plant outside of South Haven.
“Today’s announcement is a triumph for Michigan, the local community and the country. We are delighted to have been awarded funding by Michigan and grateful for their strong partnership in the repowering of Palisades. We look forward to collaborating closely with the state and other stakeholders throughout this transformative endeavor,” O’Brien said.
The process would be long and arduous. The nuclear plant has not been running since Holtec took over the site from Entergy for the decommissioning process more than a year ago. It was at that time that Whitmer took notice and started banging on the door to literally keep the lights on.
Since that time, there have been overtures and postulations trying to get the $300 million that Holtec officials are looking for before even starting the process of reauthorizing operations at the site on the shore of Lake Michigan.
“This has never been done before. We don’t have a plant that has entered the decommissioning state and the decommissioning process, (that has) requested to return to operation,” said NRC spokesperson Viktoria Mitlyng.
Mitlyng said Holtec would need to file the documents and plans for what they would need to do to restart the dormant reactor.
She said the NRC would be looking at all the qualified staff needed, which are licensed specifically to each operational nuclear facility.
“The NRC has existing licensing processes to examine whether an appropriately shut down reactor can be safely returned to operating status,” Mitlyng said.
She said NCR has “oversight of nuclear plants from birth to decommissioning,” and laid out the road that would have to be traveled by Holtec. She said the NCR inspectors are also still looking at the reactor, because it hasn’t been dismantled yet.
She said there are major questions that Holtec would need to address that have yet to be answered. The NCR doesn’t have the answers, because it doesn't yet have an application for what the decommissioning business plans would be to restart the reactor that has sat cold for a year.
“There’s going to be a lot of public input into the process. It’s not going to be done just though our technical reviews,” Mitlyng said.
Kevin Kamps, the radioactive waste specialist at Beyond Nuclear, which is against nuclear power, said the risks to restarting the reactor area too high.
“Palisades is one of the most dangerous atomic reactors in the entire world,” Kamps said.
He said the reactor was already at the end of its life and a half-century of operations likely weakened the systems.
“If the emergency core cooling system is ever activated, it would be like hot glass under cold water… only at 2,000 pounds of pressure per square inch,” Kamps said.
He said the fracture and failure could lead to a meltdown, resulting in something similar to what happened in Fukushima, Japan, except on Lake Michigan.
Kamps said the money that was asked by Holtec would not be put toward safety repairs. It's money needed to just get the plant back up and running. He said Holtec is “barely” a decommissioning business with “absolutely zero” experience operating a plant.
“It’s a Rube Goldberg machine. It’s going to be astronomically expensive for that reason, with multiple companies involved. It’s just a real gouge on the public funding,” he said.
Beyond Nuclear was one of 43 environmental organizations that sent a letter yesterday to the Legislature speaking out against restarting Palisades.
“Palisades’ Lake Michigan shoreline location imperils the Great Lakes downstream. Placing 21% of the world’s, and 84% of North America’s, surface fresh water at risk, due to Holtec’s insatiable greed, it is a reckless ‘game’ of radioactive Russian roulette,” Kamps said.
