Nuclear

Palisades nuclear station emerges from final refueling outage prior to 2022 closure

A Michigan nuclear power plant set for decommissioning in two years is back online this week after crews completed its final refueling and maintenance outage.

Entergy Corp. announced that the Palisades generating station was returned to service Wednesday. The outage allowed thousands of workers to perform many added upgrades and maintenance tasks in addition to the refueling.

The decision was made to close Palisades in 2022 after a power purchase agreement with Michigan utility Consumers Energy fell through several years ago. Palisades, commissioned in 1971, generates about 800 MW of carbon-free electricity at capacity.

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“Our dedicated employees and supplemental workers have worked diligently during the past several weeks to complete hundreds of tasks, inspections, and upgrades to prepare Palisades for safe and reliable operations as we enter our final cycle of electrical generation,” said Darrell Corbin, Entergy’s top official at Palisades. “Entergy’s focus remains on operating Palisades safely and reliably and we will continue to make the necessary investments into the plant.”

Entergy invested more than $86.5 million during the outage to ensure safety, security, and reliability at the facility through plant closure. The plant’s 600 full-time nuclear professionals worked with approximately 800 skilled supplemental workers to replace fuel in the reactor, as well as inspect and upgrade hundreds of pipes, pumps, electrical components, and other equipment.

A subsidiary of decommissioning specialty firm Holtec International is acquiring that site and Pilgrim Nuclear Station in Massachusetts upon their closures. Pilgrim was closed last year.

Entergy Corp. produces more than a fourth of its 30 GW utility-wide generating capacity from nuclear power.

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(Rod Walton is content director for Power Engineering, POWERGEN International and the online POWERGEN+ series. He can be reached at 918-831-9177 and [email protected]).