After two years of uncertainty, nuclear power is officially coming back to southwest Michigan.
On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Energy announced it’s giving Holtec a $1.52 billion loan to restart the Palisades nuclear plant, which sits between Benton Harbor and South Haven.
The enormous loan is part of President Biden’s energy agenda to make the U.S. energy grid carbon neutral by 2035. The plant could be back and operational by the end of 2025 and it would mark the first time a U.S. nuclear plant has been brought back online after being decommissioned.
Holtec spokesman Nick Culp told WVPE last month that the plant has already been rehiring and preparing for the restart, even as it continued to decommission the site. The plant will employ around 600 people when fully operational.
“This is a transformative, historic opportunity not just for the state of Michigan, but for the United States to demonstrate globally its leadership on energy,” Culp told WVPE in February.
The plant was first commissioned in the 1970s and closed in 2022. However, Michigan lawmakers worked fast to win financial support for the plan when it closed, urging former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who is currently the U.S. Secretary of Energy, for federal funding.
Beyond the federal dollars, a key to the plant being able to feasibly open is a long-term power agreement with Wolverine Power Cooperative that will see the nonprofit rural energy provider buy two thirds of the electricity generated by the plant.
Culp said that agreement gives the plant stability versus trying to sell the energy on a more ad-hoc basis.
Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration says nuclear power generates nearly 20% of electricity in America and 10% of energy worldwide.
