Palisades' owner asks NRC for permission to restart nuclear plant

The owner of Palisades Power Plant has submitted paperwork to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission seeking authorization to bring the shuttered nuclear plant back into production, which would be a first for the country.

Holtec International on Sept. 28 asked the NRC to exempt portions of its license termination. The license termination prohibits the company from operating, placing fuel into or retaining fuel in the reactor at Palisades, which is on the Lake Michigan shoreline in Covert Township.

If the NRC approves this and future Holtec requests, the company said it "will formally exit the decommissioning process and enter a second period of power operation within the original renewed facility operating license term which expires on March 24, 2031."

Holtec asked the NRC to decide before the end of next year.

The late September filing is the first in a series of submittals the company will make to the NRC as it pushes to reopen Palisades, said Jean Fleming, vice president of licensing, regulatory affairs and probabilistic safety analysis.

"Our licensing submittal is a significant step in exploring the potential for Palisades to continue contributing to the region's energy and economic needs, while adhering to the highest safety and regulatory standards," Fleming said in an Friday press release. "We understand the importance of nuclear power in our nation’s energy mix and the critical role it plays in providing safe, reliable, carbon-free electricity here in Michigan."

Holtec also will ask the NRC to approve the transfer of operational authority of Palisades and amendments to the Palisades Renewed Facility Operating License. In September, the company told the NRC the approvals were necessary to reauthorize the placement of fuel in the Palisades reactor vessel and reauthorize power operations at the plant.

Holtec executives have met with federal regulators throughout the summer to discuss their plans for resuming operations at Palisades, which stopped producing power and went into decommissioning last summer. Holtec bought the plant from Entergy in June 2022 after the plant had been shut down and defueled in May of that year.

Decommissioning work is continuing while Holtec pursues the money and licensing approvals it needs to restart, executives told the NRC officials in a Tuesday meeting. Holtec is paying for decommissioning through a trust fund that was funded by Consumers Energy customers back when the Jackson-based utility company purchased power from Palisades. Holtec is financing its efforts to restart the plant.

If it's successful, Holtec will transfer Palisades' operating authority to a Holtec-owned subsidiary it will create to run the plant, executives said Tuesday. The company said it expects to have a staff of 500 full-time employees if the plant resumes power production. Palisades had previously employed 600 when it was operating under Entergy.

In their appeal to the NRC, Holtec executives leaned on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's support of returning Palisades to the grid. Michigan lawmakers earmarked $150 million for reopening the plant in the 2024 state budget, but the money is contingent on Holtec also securing federal support. Nuclear power is included as an allowable power source in the carbon-free energy legislative package moving through the Michigan Legislature.

"In support of this priority and to meet the future clean energy requirements of the State of Michigan, (Holtec Decommissioning International LLC) has made the decision to pursue regulatory and financial actions to return (Palisades) to operational status," the company said in the NRC filing.

Holtec announced it had secured a key piece of the reopening puzzle last month when it inked a pair of power purchase agreements with two Midwest energy cooperatives. Northern Michigan's Wolverine Power Cooperative agreed to buy two-thirds of the plant's power and Indiana-based Hoosier Energy will buy the remainder.

ckthompson@detroitnews.com