Last of major projects closed out at shut-down Michigan facility
Holtec International said it has reached a “watershed moment” in its project to restart the single-unit Palisades nuclear power station in the US state of Michigan with the last of the major projects closed out.
New Jersey-based Holtec said the site has transitioned from large-scale activities to the remaining routine maintenance, testing, inspection, and operational readiness work required before startup.
More 5,000 individual work activities remain, but the transition represents an important milestone in the historic restart effort, Holtec said.
Among the final accomplishments in this “project phase” of restart was placement of the plant’s turbine-generator onto its turning gear following extensive inspections, maintenance, testing and refurbishment activities.
Another major achievement was installation and testing of a new fuel handling machine, completing the upgraded fuel handling system.
Holtec said the projects represent the culmination of a series of major efforts carried out across the station. Other work included reactor vessel inspections and replacement of reactor head penetrations, primary system chemical decontamination and passivation, steam generator tube refurbishment and secondary-side cleaning, fuel receipt and inspection, operator training and requalification, and numerous equipment upgrades and modernisation projects.
Palisades, an 805-MW pressurised water reactor unit which began commercial operation in 1972, ceased operations in May 2022.
Holtec bought Palisades to decommission the facility, which had struggled to compete with natural gas-fired plants and renewable energy, but in early 2023 applied to the DOE for federal loan funding to repower the plant.
In late 2023, Holtec began filing licensing and regulatory requests to support returning the plant to operational status.
The Biden administration finalised a $1.52bn loan guarantee for the project in September 2024.
If Holtec succeeds, Palisades will be the first nuclear plant in the US to restart after going into decommissioning.
