Michigan nuclear plant owner gets $56.8 million from feds toward restart

Grant Schwab, The Detroit News on Mar 17, 2025

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Energy said it disbursed about $56.8 million to Holtec International on Monday as the company continues work in west Michigan toward the country's first-ever restart of a commercial nuclear power plant.

The funds represent the second tranche of federal loan dollars released for Holtec's project at the Palisades Nuclear Plant in Covert Township. The maximum loan for the project is $1.52 billion, per a September 2024 agreement between the DOE and Holtec.

“Unleashing American energy dominance will require leveraging all energy sources that are affordable, reliable and secure — including nuclear energy,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement. “Today’s action is yet another step toward advancing President Trump’s commitment to increase domestic energy production, bolster our security and lower costs for the American people.”

Though Wright has broadly expressed his support for nuclear energy, the funding disbursement is a confirmation that he and the Trump administration will continue to support the Palisades project. The effort began under Democratic President Joe Biden when Holtec submitted paperwork in October 2023 to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to make the shuttered Palisades plant the first in the nation to reverse the decommissioning process.

The first disbursement for the project, according to Holtec spokesperson Pat O'Brien, happened in January 2025 while Biden was still in office. That drawdown was approximately $38 million.

Holtec bought the Palisades plant from Entergy in June 2022, two months after the plant had been shut down and refueled. Decommissioning work had already started by the time Holtec submitted its paperwork to restart Palisades.

"We are pleased with today’s announcement and the continued commitment of the US Dept. of Energy for the Palisades Restart project (and) Our work to provide 800mw of clean, baseload power back to Michigan," O'Brien said Monday in an emailed statement.

He added: "With a workforce of approximately 600 full-time employees, and 1,000 specialized contractors currently at the site, we are well on our way to helping unleash American energy, and we remain committed to working to bring the facility back online in the 4th quarter of 2025. We continue to remain on-time and underbudget in our efforts for this historic restart.”

O'Brien's statement echoes language from Wright and Trump himself, who signed an executive order hours after taking office on Jan. 20 titled "Unleashing American Energy."

The Palisades project has also enjoyed support at the state level. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has indicated her approval of the restoration of the plan and Michigan lawmakers set aside $150 million for reopening the plant in the 2024 state budget so long as the effort also gained some federal support.

Locally, there has been a mix of support and opposition for the project. Detractors have voiced concerns about whether Holtec, which has never operated a nuclear plant before, would be able to safely and effectively run Palisades.

Jack Geissner, who helps oversee the project as the NRC administrator for the Upper Midwest, has tried to allay those concerns.

"I can sleep well at night, as the administrator in the Midwest, to say that all the plants that I'm responsible for are safe," he said at an April 2024 presentation about the project in Benton Harbor. "And if we find out that they're not operating safe, I'll make sure that actions are taken to shut the plant down. Period.”

Holtec has not yet received full reauthorization to resume power operations at the Palisades plant, but the company has cleared regulatory hurdles so far. Most recently, the NRC published a draft environmental assessment in January that included a provisional finding of no significant impact, or FONSI.

The commission is reviewing public comments on the draft. If the FONSI holds, that will eliminate the need for a more cumbersome Environmental Impact Statement from the federal regulator.

"We remain confident in our trajectory toward a timely plant restart by the end of this year, pending all necessary federal regulatory reviews and approvals,” said Holtec International President Kelly Trice in a February statement.

He continued: "This is a huge credit to our 560-plus-member team of nuclear professionals as well as the hundreds of specialty contractors on site at Palisades who are braving severely inclement weather as they methodically carry out the multitude of project activities with a remarkable show of adherence to Holtec’s standards of safety and quality assurance."

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(Staff writers Carol Thompson and Beth LeBlanc contributed.)

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