LOCAL

The Palisades nuclear plant is offline. What happens next and is it closed for good?

Carolyn Muyskens
The Holland Sentinel
Palisades Nuclear Control Operator Danny Wright safely takes the reactor at Palisades Power Plant off the power grid for the final time on Friday, May 20, 2022. Nuclear Control Operator Ken Johnson and Nuclear Operations Shift Manager Troy Polhamus provide oversight.

COVERT — On Friday, May 20, nuclear control operators at the Palisades Power Plant pushed a red button that shut down the nuclear reactor for good.

The power plant had produced electricity for 50 years at the Covert Township site on Lake Michigan.

The shutdown of Palisades marks the completion of owner Entergy Corp.'s exit of the nuclear merchant power business. The company has sold its Vermont Yankee, Pilgrim, Indian Point and James A. Fitzpatrick nuclear plants.

It was "calm, quiet" in the room as operators carried out their final actions Friday, said nuclear operations shift manager Jim Byrd. "We are trained to stay calm, cool and collected."

Plant operators debrief after a simulation of the nuclear reactor shutdown in an exact replica of the control room at Palisades Power Plant, Tuesday, May 24, 2022.

Those final actions included lowering 41 control rods into the reactor, which stops the nuclear reaction occurring inside, and disconnecting the reactor from the electric grid, a process that took less than 10 minutes and the push of a few buttons.

"The emotion actually happened after work when it set in that this was the last time," Byrd said. "There's more work to do once you shut down, a significant amount of work. We don't have time to dwell on that shutdown."

The reactor was taken offline 11 days before the originally announced shutdown date of May 31 because of leaking water from the reactor due to a degraded control rod drive seal.

Byrd said the issue had been flagged for several months but had recently worsened.

In a normal operating cycle, the seal is "easily replaceable" during a fuel outage when the reactor is offline, plant spokesperson Val Gent said, but Entergy decided "after careful consideration" to shut down early and not return to operations because they were so close to the final shutdown date.

"We'd been watching it," Byrd said, "and it got worse, and we made the decision that we were going to follow our operating fundamentals and the principles of conservative decisions and say, 'Ok, we need to take the unit offline before it even comes close to challenging the health and safety of the public.'"

A U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission notification, dated May 23, states the shutdown "was a conservative decision based on equipment performance and was not required by the plant Technical Specifications. The NRC resident inspectors observed the shutdown and identified no concerns."

Palisades Power Plant in Covert, Mich. is owned and operated by Entergy Corp.

What happens next

In the next two weeks, workers will remove the fuel inside the reactor and place it in the spent fuel pools to safely cool. Once that happens, the plant can be transferred to its next owner, Holtec, the company that will carry out the decommissioning process. The sale of the plant is expected to close by July 1.

Palisades employees next month will begin transferring to other Entergy sites where they have accepted new jobs, transferring to work for the decommissioning company, Holtec International, or leave the company. The last day for employees who are not staying on to work for Holtec is June 23.

Entergy said about 130 employees accepted new jobs within Entergy at other locations, about 260 employees were hired to stay at Palisades and work for Holtec to decommission the plant and about 180 employees will either retire or separate from Entergy.

Palisades Power Plant in Covert, Mich.

Palisades Site Vice President Darrell Corbin said the plant was a point of pride of Van Buren County, in addition to being one of the area's top three largest employers and largest taxpayers.

"It was such a great thing," Corbin said. "Everybody in South Haven, Van Buren County, was so proud that they could bring a nuclear plant. [...] What a remarkable thing that was. People were so proud of it.

"I would say the largest success was the workforce that was here. I can tell you I have not worked with finer individuals in my life."

In the first three years of decommissioning, through 2025, Holtec's first moves will be to remove the spent fuel into dry cask storage inland from Lake Michigan.

Then, there will be a ten-year pause in decommissioning work while Holtec waits for investments to grow in the $539 million decommissioning trust fund, Holtec officials explained.

After that point, the plant will be demolished and the site restored for reuse. The entire process is expected to take 19 years, Holtec officials said.

More:Palisades Nuclear Plant shut down last week despite Gov. Whitmer asking for more time

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More:My Take: We need nuclear power now as we face looming energy crisis in U.S.

State mum on potential buyers 

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last month called for federal investment to save Palisades from closure and hinted at talks with potential buyers willing to keep the plant open, but no word has come from the state about progress toward a deal.

Six billion dollars in financial aid for nuclear plants has been made available in a new program at the Biden administration's Department of Energy, but a May 19 deadline to apply for the aid was extended to July 5, and the DOE has not commented on the status of any applications for the funding.

The Entergy spokesperson for Palisades, Gent, said no purchase offers have been made on the plant.

"There are significant technical and commercial hurdles to changing course at this point," Gent said in a statement. "That said, alongside Holtec, we will work with any qualified party that wants to explore acquiring the plant and obtaining federal funding.

"Entergy is supportive of federal initiatives to keep nuclear plants operating. However, we are five years into the Palisades shutdown process and permanently removed the plant from the grid on May 20. Palisades is now in its defuel outage where teams of nuclear professionals will safely remove the used fuel from the reactor."

— Contact reporter Carolyn Muyskens at cmuyskens@hollandsentinel.com and follow her on Twitter at @cjmuyskens