Decommissioning

Holtec / US Company Acquires Palisades And Big Rock Point For Decommissioning

By Kamen Kraev
5 July 2022

Company’s SMR-160 small modular reactor being considered for deployment at sites
US Company Acquires Palisades And Big Rock Point For Decommissioning
The Palisades decommissioning project is expected to be completed in about 19 years. Courtesy Holtec.
Texas-based Holtec International has completed the acquisition of the shutdown single-unit Palisades nuclear power plant and the Big Rock Point spent fuel storage facility at a former nuclear plant , both in Michigan.

The company said in a statement that the acquisition was given the green light by US regulators with a licence transfer approval in December 2021.

Holtec said it will now proceed with decommissioning at Palisades, the first task being the planned removal of spent nuclear fuel.

The Palisades decommissioning project is expected to be completed in about 19 years, but the transfer of spent fuel from wet to dry storage will be finished by 2025.

Holtec said that the Big Rock Point nuclear plant, near Charlevoix, Michigan, was decommissioned in the early 2000s and used fuel remains at the site.

All used fuel will be moved to its Hi-Store interim storage facility in New Mexico, which is undergoing the final stage of licensing review by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

The company said the deployment of Holtec’s SMR-160 small modular reactor is among the options being considered for repurposing the Palisades and Big Rock Point sites. The SMR is expected to be ready for service in around 2030.

Apart from Palisades and Big Rock Point, Holtec’s decommissioning fleet includes the single-unit Oyster Creek and Pilgrim plants, and three units at Indian Point

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