Palisades Nuclear Generating Station

The Palisades Nuclear Generating Station is a moth-balled nuclear power plant located on Lake Michigan, in Van Buren County's Covert Township, Michigan, on a 432-acre (175 ha) site 5 miles (8.0 km) south of South Haven, Michigan, USA. Palisades was operated by the Nuclear Management Company and owned by CMS Energy prior to the sale to Entergy on April 11, 2007.

Palisades Nuclear Power Plant
Palisades Power Plant in 1974
Official name	Palisades Power Plant
Country	United States
Location	Covert Township, Van Buren County, Michigan
Coordinates	42°19′22″N 86°18′52″W
Status	Shut down
Construction began	March 12, 1967 (1967-03-12)
Commission date	December 29, 1971 (1971-12-29)
Decommission date	May 20, 2022 (2022-05-20) (Permanent shutdown - being reversed)
Construction cost	$630 million (2007 USD)[1] ($892 million in 2023 dollars[2])
Owner(s)	Holtec International
Operator(s)	Entergy Nuclear (former)
Nuclear power station
Reactor type	PWR
Reactor supplier	Combustion Engineering
Cooling towers	2 × mechanical draft cooling towers[lower-alpha 1]
Cooling source	Lake Michigan
Thermal capacity	1 × 2565 MWth
Power generation
Units operational	1 × 805 MWe
Make and model	CE 2-loop (DRYAMB)
Nameplate capacity	805 MWe
Capacity factor	99.2% (2021) 72.2% (lifetime)
Annual net output	7,014 GWh (2021)
External links
Website	Palisades Power Plant (plant page) Palisades Power Plant (plant site)
Commons	Related media on Commons

Its single Combustion Engineering pressurized water reactor weighs 425 tons and has steel walls 8+1⁄2 inches (220 mm) thick. The containment building is 116 feet (35 m) in diameter and 189 feet (58 m) tall, including the dome. Its concrete walls are 3+1⁄2 feet (1.1 m) thick with a 1⁄4-inch-thick (6.4 mm) steel liner plate. The dome roof is 3 feet (0.91 m) thick. Access is via a personnel lock measuring 3 feet 6 inches (1.07 m) by 7 feet 8 inches (2.34 m). The Westinghouse Electric Company turbine generator can produce 725,000 kilowatts of electricity.

Built between 1967 and 1970, Palisades was approved to operate at full power in 1973.^[4]

On July 12, 2006, it was announced that the plant would be sold to Entergy. On April 11, 2007, the plant was sold to Entergy for $380 million.^[5] The plant's original licensee was due to expire on March 24, 2011. An application for 20-year extension was filed in 2005 with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It was granted on January 18, 2007. Therefore, the plant was then scheduled for decommissioning by 2031.^[6]

Entergy had made a decision to close the plant in October 2018. A decision by the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) influenced the company's decision. Consumers Energy attempted to buy its way out of a power purchase agreement it has with Entergy and the plant. The MPSC did not approve Consumer Energy's full request of $172 million, so Entergy decided to keep the plant open three years longer than planned.^[7] On April 20, 2022, just weeks before the facility was scheduled to close, Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer requested federal funding to keep the facility open.^[8]

Entergy closed the Palisades plant in May 2022^[9][10] and its sale to Holtec International was completed in June 2022.^[11] However, in September 2022, Holtec applied for funds from the Civil Nuclear Credit to reopen the plant.^[12] This request was denied in November 2022.^[13] In December 2022, Holtec announced that it will reapply for funds from the Civil Nuclear Credit in order to restart Palisades.^[14] Other efforts have been made to "repower" the plant.^[15] On September 12, 2023, Holtec and Wolverine Power Cooperative announced that they had reached a power purchase agreement to restart the plant once the re-opening is approved.^[16] As of August 2024, Holtec has secured $300 million in state funding to restart the plant.^[17] The Department of Energy is also ready to offer a $1.5 billion loan to assist in restarting operations.^[18] If operations resume, planned for late 2025,^[19] the plant would be the first nuclear power plant to restart operations in the country.^[20]

Electricity production

Generation (MWh) of Palisades Power Plant^[21]

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Annual (Total)
2001	592,991	512,071	571,285	2,663	298,038	371,256	-3,857	-2,260	-2,114	-2,025	-1,979	-5,023	2,331,046
2002	168,721	535,946	600,727	576,904	577,499	537,795	582,568	568,090	545,479	591,278	565,875	507,080	6,357,962
2003	591,649	525,637	288,895	151,228	591,727	566,907	560,312	572,715	562,716	588,899	553,522	597,274	6,151,481
2004	597,162	537,116	596,098	569,271	583,466	560,078	461,033	429,413	196,447	-2,294	218,324	597,732	5,343,846
2005	397,709	541,624	598,387	574,581	590,400	562,735	581,101	576,704	497,868	583,085	559,996	579,426	6,643,616
2006	483,519	547,734	602,942	-2,481	219,549	576,782	585,700	590,628	574,389	602,582	518,820	603,697	5,903,861
2007	603,143	497,774	485,071	583,991	465,196	569,217	585,433	582,322	149,115	118,585	581,425	604,743	5,826,015
2008	541,751	566,389	607,111	579,786	556,350	567,071	582,065	486,670	567,326	595,073	581,797	603,347	6,834,736
2009	602,883	456,765	408,921	0	556,099	572,986	586,004	584,081	569,329	596,345	580,914	604,383	6,118,710
2010	605,062	546,938	593,732	562,212	594,771	445,015	523,828	579,406	556,104	52,104	581,983	599,506	6,240,661
2011	470,918	549,704	599,520	586,084	601,466	575,531	587,675	587,482	382,827	558,063	579,535	562,215	6,641,020
2012	520,384	560,994	559,117	70,773	337,644	223,603	379,584	232,642	572,715	598,924	516,978	604,855	5,178,213
2013	601,801	406,300	601,233	582,500	78,941	240,832	586,088	586,335	570,971	594,112	584,273	608,310	6,041,696
2014	352,746	0	279,059	590,296	603,606	447,510	591,671	587,580	575,159	601,553	586,902	606,844	5,822,926
2015	608,486	548,730	608,445	585,160	592,832	570,012	585,747	578,292	245,693	207,366	583,569	604,188	6,318,520
2016	604,084	567,887	606,693	585,596	594,084	570,444	583,080	583,768	568,757	595,017	580,097	605,674	7,045,181
2017	606,167	546,327	410,108	246,708	153,022	573,633	592,094	591,359	576,289	601,210	589,536	611,043	6,097,496
2018	611,065	552,287	507,808	589,980	602,254	573,853	591,112	585,875	576,132	239,649	0	25,925	5,455,940
2019	490,769	549,023	608,203	587,459	603,692	577,448	506,100	575,922	572,336	600,323	587,265	606,627	6,865,167
2020	607,199	567,646	606,475	585,434	600,016	570,882	583,761	512,269	0	170,462	584,075	606,904	5,995,123
2021	607,642	548,387	607,009	585,761	600,744	572,711	553,246	577,453	571,543	596,151	586,434	607,718	7,014,799
2022	608,772	549,352	607,781	586,628	377,697	0	0	--	--	--			2,730,230
2023

Spent fuel storage

Spent fuel is stored outdoors in 21 16-foot-tall (4.9 m) storage casks, each containing 30 tons and resting on a concrete pad. This was intended to be a temporary solution until the spent fuel repository at Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository opened.

Parts replacement

Two steam generators were replaced in 1992. This involved cutting a 28 by 26 foot opening through the 3.5-foot-thick (1.1 m) reinforced concrete wall. The removed units are stored in a large concrete building on plant property.^[22]

Surrounding population

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission defines two emergency planning zones around nuclear power plants: a plume exposure pathway zone with a radius of 10 miles (16 km), concerned primarily with exposure to, and inhalation of, airborne radioactive contamination, and an ingestion pathway zone of about 50 miles (80 km), concerned primarily with ingestion of food and liquid contaminated by radioactivity.^[23]

The 2010 U.S. population within 10 miles (16 km) of Palisades was 28,644, a decrease of 4.5 percent in a decade, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data for msnbc.com. The 2010 U.S. population within 50 miles (80 km) was 1,326,618, an increase of 4.4 percent since 2000. Cities within 50 miles include South Bend, IN (45 miles to city center) and Kalamazoo, MI.^[24]

Seismic risk

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's estimate of the risk each year of an earthquake intense enough to cause core damage to the reactor at Palisades was 1 in 156,250, according to an NRC study published in August 2010.^[25][26]

Visiting

View from Van Buren State Park

Like all U.S. nuclear power plants since September 11, 2001, public access to Palisades is prohibited. However, Palisades can be glimpsed from the neighboring Van Buren State Park.

Decommissioning

Originally planned to operate through May 31, 2022, concerns over a faulty control rod drive seal prompted operators to remove the plant from service on May 20.^[27]

Once all fuel is removed from the reactor core, Holtec will buy the plant from Entergy and begin a three year process of moving all fuel to dry cask storage. Then a ten year pause to allow the decommissioning trust fund balance to grow followed by a 6 year long dismantling process, with an estimated completion date of 2041.^[28]

The cost of decommissioning will be covered by a $550-million trust fund, paid for by Consumers Energy customers.^[29]

Intention to restart operations

In January 2024, the federal government was poised to offer Holtec International a $1.5 billion federal loan to restart the Palisades nuclear plant.^[30] The loan was reported at the time to potentially start as soon as February 2024.^[31] The conditional agreement was announced on March 27.^[18] If successful, Palisades would become the first U.S. nuclear reactor to restart after its fuel has been removed and its license revised to prohibit further operation.^[32][33] The plan for a restart by Holtec International (based in Jupiter, Florida) got a boost after Wolverine Power Cooperative, a local power company, agreed to buy as much as 2/3 of the plant’s output starting as soon as late 2025, though additional hurdles, including sign off from federal nuclear regulators.^[34][19] Holtec acquired the 800-megawatt power plant in 2022 after Entergy Corp. closed it due to financial reasons.

Small modular reactor plans

In December 2023, Holtec International announced that it intended to build the first two of its SMR-300 small modular reactors at Palisades by mid-2030.^[35]

See also

• Michigan portal
• Energy portal
• Nuclear technology portal

• List of nuclear reactors
• Nuclear energy policy of the United States
• Nuclear reactor accidents in the United States

Notes

1. 1 × Ecodyne 18-cell cross-flow induced draft cooling tower, and 1 × SPX Marley 16-cell cross-flow induced draft tower.^[3] The plant originally used a once-through cooling system, but it was converted to the current closed-cycle cooling system just three years after entering commercial operation.^[3]

References

1. "EIA - State Nuclear Profiles". www.eia.gov. Retrieved 3 October 2017.
2. Johnston, Louis; Williamson, Samuel H. (2023). "What Was the U.S. GDP Then?". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved November 30, 2023. United States Gross Domestic Product deflator figures follow the MeasuringWorth series.
3. Palisades - Final Safety Analysis Report Update, Revision 32, Chapter 10 - Steam and Power Conversion System (PDF) (Report). Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
4. Swidwa, Julie (December 9, 2016). "Timeline: Palisades' rocky history". The Herald-Palladium. Retrieved December 9, 2016.
5. "Entergy News Release - Corporate". Entergy.com. 2006-07-12. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2016-12-09.
6. "Local News: Extension approved for Palisades Nuclear Power Plant, license, plant, nuclear - wwmt.com". 2007-01-18. Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2016-12-09.
7. Galford, Chris (2017-09-29). "Palisades Nuclear Power Plant to continue operations until 2022". Daily Energy Insider. Retrieved 2017-10-10.
8. "With Emissions Soaring, Democratic Governors Sour On Plans To Shut Down Nuclear Power". MSN. Retrieved 2022-05-03.
9. Newman, Alexandra (September 29, 2017). "Palisades to stay open to 2022". The Herald-Palladium. Retrieved September 29, 2017.
10. Palisades Power Plant shuts down early, WOODtv, Matt Jaworowski, May 20, 2022
11. Knot, Juliana (June 28, 2022). "Entergy completes Palisades sale to Holtec, decommissioning begins". The Herald-Palladium. Retrieved June 29, 2022.
12. Boatman, Michael (10 September 2022). "In surprise move, Whitmer announces plan to reopen shuttered Palisades nuclear plant". Retrieved 10 September 2022.
13. House, Kelly (21 November 2022). "Feds deny funding to reopen Michigan's Palisades nuclear plant". Retrieved 21 November 2022.
14. Beggin, Riley. "Owner of Palisades to reapply for funding to reopen nuclear power plant". Detroit News. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
15. Wittkowski, Tony (June 27, 2023). "State, local officials push for urgency to repower former Palisades plant". The Herald-Palladium. Retrieved June 28, 2023.
16. , Retrieved 2024-01-31
17. Niiler, Eric (2024-08-26). "Can a Closed Nuclear Power Plant From the '70s Be Brought Back to Life? - Surging demand for electricity and new investment in green energy drove the plan to restart Michigan's decommissioned Palisades plant. It would be a global first". Wall Street Journal.
18. "LPO Announces Conditional Commitment to Holtec Palisades to Finance the Restoration and Resumption of Service of 800-MW Nuclear Generating Station". Energy.gov. March 27, 2024. Retrieved April 5, 2024.
19. Halper, Evan (July 10, 2024). "A nuclear accident made Three Mile Island infamous. AI's needs may revive it". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 12, 2024.
20. "Report: Feds will give $1.5 billion to restart Palisades nuclear plant". Bridge Michigan. January 31, 2024.
21. "Electricity Data Browser". www.eia.gov. Retrieved 2023-01-07.
22. "Palisades Steam Generator Replacement Project-1992 NOVA Award Winner". Cif.org. Retrieved 2016-12-09.
23. "Backgrounder on Emergency Preparedness at Nuclear Power Plants". Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Retrieved 2019-12-22.
24. "Nuclear neighbors: Population rises near US reactors". NBC News. 2011-04-14. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
25. "What are the odds? US nuke plants ranked by quake risk". NBC News. 2011-03-16. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
26. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-05-25. Retrieved 2011-04-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
27. Weidmayer, Marie. "Palisades nuclear power plant shuts down 11 days early". MLive. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
28. Jennerjahn, Allie. "Palisades nuclear power plant plans for 19 year decommissioning". NewsChannel 3. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
29. Muyskens, Carolyn. "Regulators approve sale of soon-to-be-shuttered Palisades Nuclear Plant". The Holland Sentinel. Retrieved 2022-01-19.
30. "Holtec to be offered $1.5 billion loan to restart Palisades nuclear plant". Power Engineering. 31 Jan 2024. Retrieved 31 Jan 2024.
31. "Biden to Offer $1.5 Billion Loan to Restart Michigan Nuclear Power Plant". Bloomberg.com. 2024-01-30. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
32. "Company seeks first-time restart of shuttered nuclear plant". AP News. 2023-04-26. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
33. "NRC Approves Changes to Palisades Nuclear Plant's Emergency Planning Requirements" (PDF). Retrieved 2024-04-04.
34. Netter, Ari. "Biden to offer $1.5B loan to restart nuclear power plant on Lake Michigan". The Detroit News. Retrieved 2024-04-04.
35. "Palisades SMR programme is under way: Holtec". World Nuclear News. 5 December 2023. Retrieved 11 December 2023.

External links

• "Michigan Nuclear Profile". Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). 2010. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
• "Palisades Nuclear Plant". Operating Nuclear Power Reactors. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). April 4, 2016. Retrieved 2016-11-01.
• "Palisades PWR". Nuclear Engineering International Wall Charts. University Libraries, University of New Mexico. January 1970. Retrieved 2016-11-01.