The unprecedented effort to restart a shuttered nuclear plant along the shore of Lake Michigan hit a slight snag in recent weeks as inspectors discovered a “large number” of potentially faulty tubes.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission put out a notification about the status of the tubes this week, not because the tubes pose any risk to the public, but because of the high interest in the restart process.
“The plant’s not operating. The unit remains defueled,” said NRC spokesperson Prema Chandrathil. “And there’s no immediate safety concern or impact to public health.”
Holtec International, the owner of the Palisades facility, still has not received final regulatory approval to restart the plant. But if it happens, it would be the first time a closed nuclear reactor was restarted in the U.S. On Friday, the owners of the Three Mile Island nuclear facility in Pennsylvania announced a plan to restart one of its generators in order to supply power to Microsoft.
But while the Palisades plans aren’t officially approved, the plan has received support from the Biden administration and the state of Michigan. The Biden administration announced a $1.5 billion loan to Holtec, if the project gains regulatory approval. The state of Michigan has promised another $150 million to help pay for the plant to be repaired and reopened.
Holtec has said the restart would create more than 600 jobs. Hundreds of workers have already been hired to prepare the plant for the restart. Their ongoing work is what led to the discovery of a problem with the tubes that are part of the plant’s steam generator system.
Nick Culp, a spokesperson for Holtec, couldn’t say exactly how many tubes would need to be repaired or replaced but said there are “thousands” of such tubes that were inspected.
He said the company was currently working on finalizing its analysis of the inspection, and coming up with a repair plan. But he said the company expected to need to make repairs. He said this latest discovery won’t affect the planned timeline for reopening.
In the meantime, inspections of other parts of the facility are ongoing. And if more repairs are needed, Culp said they will be done.
