People in Southwest Michigan weighed in Thursday night on how federal regulators should assess the impact of reopening a nuclear plant on Lake Michigan near South Haven. If the plan goes through, it would be the first nuclear plant to be reopened after a closure in the United States.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission held a hearing in Benton Harbor and virtually to get feedback on what it should consider in an environmental assessment of the proposed reopening.
Kraig Schultz is with the group Michigan Safe Energy Future, and lives near the plant.
"If we’re really going to embark on another 50 years of trying to operate these plants, something no one has ever done, we need to really be doubling down and actually increasing our regulation to make sure that we don’t have a nuclear disaster here or anywhere in the world," Schultz said.
But others, including Jacquelyn Drechsler, said the plant could be a good option to offset fossil fuel energy production as electricity demand grows.
“I personally don’t want coal and natural gas power companies spewing more CO2 into the atmosphere to provide the power we want and need to fuel our lives,” Drechsler said at the meeting.
George Sleeper, who retired from the Palisades plant when it closed and now serves on the South Haven city council, said he supports the plant reopening.
“The city council approved a resolution supporting the restart of Palisades,” Sleeper said, “and I have confidence that the NRC, the DOE and Holtec will do everything they need to to ensure acceptable environmental impact associated with the restart.”
The Department of Energy has conditionally approved a $1.5 billion loan to help reopen Palisades.
The NRC is accepting public comments on the scope of the environmental assessment until July 29. Comments can be made online here.
