Cover City, Michigan has a massive landmark that most people thought was dead and buried. For decades, the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station sat on the shores of Lake Michigan, churning out carbon-free power until its retirement in May 2022. It seemed like the end of the road. Most nuclear plants, once they click that "off" switch for the last time, stay off. Decommissioning begins, fuel is moved, and the site eventually becomes a memory.
But Palisades is different.
Honestly, what’s happening right now is unprecedented in the history of American energy. Holtec International, the company that bought the plant to tear it down, changed its mind. They're now trying to flip the switch back to "on." If they pull it off—and it’s looking more likely every day—it will be the first time a decommissioned nuclear reactor in the U.S. has ever been successfully restarted. It’s a massive gamble.
The $1.5 Billion Bet on Clean Energy
The Biden-Harris administration basically signaled that they are all-in on this. In early 2024, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced a conditional commitment for a $1.52 billion loan guarantee to help Holtec get the plant back into fighting shape. That is an insane amount of money, but it shows how desperate the grid is for "firm" baseload power that doesn't pump CO2 into the atmosphere.
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You've got to understand the scale here. We're talking about an 800-megawatt facility. That’s enough juice to power roughly 800,000 homes.
When the plant shut down in 2022 under its previous owner, Entergy, it was mostly an economic decision. Natural gas was cheap. Solar and wind were getting all the subsidies. Nuclear felt like an old, expensive dinosaur. But then the world changed. The grid started getting shaky. Michigan set aggressive climate goals. Suddenly, losing 800 megawatts of reliable power felt like a huge mistake.
The Technical Nightmare of a Restart
Restarting a nuclear reactor isn't like jumping a car that's been sitting in your garage for two years. You can't just turn a key and hope the engine catches.
Since the 2022 shutdown, the plant has been in "defuel" mode. To get it back up, Holtec has to perform a series of exhaustive inspections on the steam generators, the reactor vessel, and miles of intricate piping. Everything has to be perfect. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is breathing down their necks, and for good reason. They are currently navigating a regulatory pathway that hasn't really been used before. It’s a bit of a "learn as you go" situation for both the company and the government.
Engineers are looking at the integrity of the metal. They’re checking for any signs of embrittlement or corrosion that might have accelerated while the systems were cold. It’s tedious. It's expensive. It's necessary.
Why Does This Matter?
Basically, because the math for a "green" grid doesn't work well without nuclear.
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- Reliability: Unlike solar, Palisades works at 2 AM. Unlike wind, it works when the air is dead still.
- Jobs: We're talking about 600 high-paying, long-term jobs returning to Van Buren County.
- Carbon: It's roughly 4.4 million tonnes of CO2 emissions avoided every single year the plant runs.
Some people are worried. Environmental groups like Beyond Nuclear have raised concerns about the age of the plant. Palisades first went online in 1971. That makes it an old-timer. Critics point to the history of "thermal shock" issues with the reactor pressure vessel, arguing that pushing an old machine back into service is asking for trouble. Holtec, however, maintains that modern monitoring and rigorous maintenance can keep the facility running safely for another couple of decades.
The Power Purchase Agreements
A power plant is useless if nobody buys the electricity. Holtec already sorted that out. They’ve signed long-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with rural electric cooperatives like Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative and Hoosier Energy. These orgs are hungry for carbon-free credits and price stability.
Wolverine Power, based in Cadillac, Michigan, is particularly gung-ho. They want to provide their members with power that isn't subject to the wild price swings of the natural gas market. By locking in Palisades' output, they’re essentially hedging against future energy crises.
What Most People Get Wrong
People think nuclear is "dangerous" in a way that other energy isn't. But if you look at the stats, nuclear is actually one of the safest forms of energy per terawatt-hour produced—often safer than wind or solar when you account for industrial accidents. The real "danger" for Palisades has always been its bank account, not its physics.
The restart is also a trial run for the future of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs). Holtec eventually wants to build two of their SMR-300 units at the Palisades site. Think of the 1971 reactor as the anchor, and the new SMRs as the modern expansion. It’s a hybrid approach: save the old to fund the new.
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The Road Ahead
The target for the restart is late 2025. It’s an aggressive timeline.
Right now, the site is a hive of activity. They are re-hiring staff, many of whom had moved on to other plants or retired. They are training a new generation of operators who never thought they’d be working at a "zombie" plant. The NRC is still reviewing the filings, and there are several public comment periods that will likely be quite heated.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has been a vocal supporter, seeing the plant as a cornerstone of the state's MI Healthy Climate Plan. Without Palisades, Michigan’s path to a carbon-neutral grid by 2050 gets a lot steeper and a lot more expensive.
Actions for Following the Palisades Story
If you’re watching this play out, keep an eye on these specific indicators. They will tell you if the restart is actually going to happen or if it’s going to stall out.
- NRC License Re-instatement: This is the big one. Watch for the formal transition from "Decommissioning" status back to "Operating" status in the NRC federal register.
- Federal Loan Closing: The $1.5 billion is "conditional." Once the final paperwork is signed and the money starts flowing, there’s usually no turning back.
- Hiring Milestones: Keep an eye on local news in Southwest Michigan. If Holtec hits their goal of 600+ full-time employees, the momentum is real.
- Fuel Procurement: Watch for news regarding the delivery of fresh nuclear fuel assemblies to the site. Once the fuel is on-site and the reactor is loaded, the countdown is officially on.
Palisades is a test case for the entire world. If a 50-year-old plant in Michigan can be brought back from the dead, it changes the conversation for dozens of other closed plants across Europe and North America. It’s no longer just about building the future; it’s about making sure we didn't throw away the best tools we already had.