Miles SmithA public-private project to reopen a shuttered nuclear power plant in Michigan will receive more than $2.8 billion in federal support through the U.S Department of Energy and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The DOE on Monday announced it had closed on a loan guarantee of up to $1.52 billion to Holtec International, which is working to restore and reopen the Palisades nuclear power plant in Covert Township, Michigan, which was closed and taken offline in May 2022.
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The USDA also recently announced more than $1.3 billion in Empowering Rural America program awards to help two rural cooperatives reduce the cost of electricity from using the recommissioned power source.
The Palisades project is expected to provide access to clean power for 800,000 homes, the DOE says.
Holtec is planning to bring the plant back online in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to reports.
“Nuclear power is America’s largest source of carbon-free of electricity, supporting hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs across the country and will play a critical role in tackling the climate crisis and protecting public health and the environment from its impacts,” says U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm.
After the plant is brought online and upgraded, it will produce clean baseload power until at least 2051, subject to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing approvals, the DOE says.
Once complete, this project will be the first recommissioning of a retired nuclear power plant in U.S. history.
The restart of Holtec Palisades is projected to create or retain up to 600 well-paying jobs in Michigan -many of them filled by workers who have been at the plant for more than 20 years – with approximately 45% of the workforce at the site being union labor upon restart, the DOE said.
The loan guarantee will also support more than 1,000 jobs during the facility’s regularly scheduled refueling and maintenance periods every 18 months. Holtec has a project labor agreement in place with 15 trade unions that are supporting the project, the DOE adds.
Holtec has already signed long-term Power Purchase Agreements for the full power output with rural electric co-ops Wolverine Power Cooperative and Hoosier Energy, who serve rural communities in Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana, the DOE says.
The DOE adds the plant restart will also help fight the climate crisis with an anticipated 4.47 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions avoided per year for a total of 111 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions during the projected 25 years of operations—an amount roughly equivalent to the annual emissions of 882,000 homes.
