COVERT, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – Local and state lawmakers are praising the U.S. Department of Energy’s decision on the conditional commitment of up to $1.52 billion for a loan to repower Palisades Nuclear Power Plant outside Covert in Van Buren County.
Congressman Bill Huizenga called the announcement Wednesday “a massive step towards restoring 800 megawatts of carbon-free energy generation and hundreds of highly skilled jobs right here in Michigan’s Fourth Congressional District.”
He went on to say “Holtec’s historic repowering of the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant will provide safe, reliable energy to meet Southwest Michigan’s growing needs, and it lays the groundwork for the first-of-their-kind small modular reactors to be placed at Palisades in the future.”
In a news release, Governor Gretchen Whitmer said, “Once complete, Palisades will become the first successfully restarted nuclear power plant in American history, protecting 600 union jobs at the plant, 1,100 in the community, and access to clean, reliable power for 800,000 homes.”
State Representative Pauline Wendzel, the Republican Leader of the House Energy, Communications, and Technology Committee, says “Nuclear power has an essential role in our nation’s energy future, and that future is going to be built right here in Michigan.”
Entergy closed the Palisades plant in May 2022 and its sale to Holtec International was completed in June 2022.
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