Wednesday, October 02, 2024

Corrosion exceeds estimates at Michigan nuclear plant US wants to restart, regulator says

Timothy Gardner
Wed, October 2, 2024 



By Timothy Gardner

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Holtec, the company wanting to reopen the Palisades nuclear reactor in Michigan, found corrosion cracking in steam generators "far exceeded" estimates, the U.S. nuclear power regulator said in a document published on Wednesday.

President Joe Biden's administration this week finalized a $1.52 billion conditional loan guarantee to the Palisades plant. It is part of an effort to support nuclear energy, which generates virtually emissions-free power, to curb climate change and to help satisfy rising electricity demand from artificial intelligence, electric vehicles and digital currency.

Palisades, which shut under a different owner in 2022, is seeking to be the first modern U.S. nuclear power plant to reopen after being fully shut.

A summary of an early September call between the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Holtec published on Wednesday said indications of stress corrosion cracking in tubes in both of Palisade's steam generators "far exceeded estimates based on previous operating history." It found 1,163 steam generator tubes had indications of the stress cracking. There are more than 16,000 tubes in the units.

Steam generators are sensitive components that require meticulous maintenance and are among the most expensive units at a nuclear power station.

Holtec wants to return the plant to operation late next year. Patrick O'Brien, a company spokesperson, said the results of the inspections "were not entirely unpredicted" as the standard system "layup process", or procedure for maintaining the units, was not followed when the plant went into shutdown.

But he said the return of Palisades is still on schedule and that Holtec wants to fix, and not replace, the steam generators, which he said would last for 30 years after repairs.

"We expect the repair strategy will be to 'unplug' approximately 300 tubes per steam generator that were plugged at original installation, and then address the tubes found during the inspections by plugging approximately 20% of the tubes that cannot be repaired easily and repairing the remaining 80% with sleeving, which is a common and proven repair strategy," O'Brien said.

Holtec still needs permits from the NRC. "Holtec must ensure the generators will meet NRC requirements if the agency authorizes returning Palisades to operational status," an NRC spokesperson said.

The NRC said last month that preliminary results from inspections "identified a large number of steam generator tubes with indications that require further analysis and/or repair."

Steam generator issues can pose problems for nuclear power plants. Parts of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in California were shut in 2012 after steam generators that had a design flaw leaked. Problems with new generators led to the closure of the plant in 2013.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Andrea Ricci and David Gregorio)


First nuclear plant recommissioned in US history as part of $2.8bn funding
Power Technology · (Holtec International.)


Claire Jenns
Power Technology
Tue, October 1, 2024 

The Biden-Harris Administration, through the US Department of Energy (DOE) and Department of Agriculture (USDA), has announced more than $2.8bn in funding to support clean power in the Midwest.

As part of the plan, the DOE has closed a loan guarantee of up to $1.52bn to finance the restoration and resumption of a 800MW nuclear generating station in Michigan.


This marks the first recommissioning of a retired nuclear power plant in US history.

The Palisades Nuclear Plant, which ceased operations in May 2022, will be brought back online and upgraded to produce clean baseload power until at least 2051, subject to US Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing approvals.

The plant’s restart is expected to protect 600 union jobs at the plant and 1,100 in the community and provide access to reliable power for 800,000 homes in the Midwest, covering Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana and Illinois.

Palisades is also anticipated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 4.47 million tonnes (mt) per year for a total of 111mt during the projected 25 years of operations.

The project is managed by energy company Holtec International and Wolverine Power Cooperative, a not-for-profit energy provider to rural communities in Michigan. The organisations signed long-term power purchase agreements in 2023.

The USDA has also allocated more than $1.3bn for Wolverine Power Cooperative and Hoosier Energy to reduce the cost of electricity passed on to the community from the Palisades plant and other clean energy sources.

According to the White House, the Palisades plant is located in a disadvantaged community where residents face higher energy costs than 97% of communities in the country.

US Secretary of Energy Jennifer M Granholm commented: “Nuclear power is America’s largest source of carbon-free of electricity, supporting hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs across the country, and will play a critical role in tackling the climate crisis and protecting public health and the environment from its impacts.”

The US aims for a carbon-free power sector by 2035. Nuclear power has been spotlighted as a solution for providing uninterrupted carbon-free power amid rising electricity demand.

"First nuclear plant recommissioned in US history as part of $2.8bn funding " was originally created and published by Power Technology, a GlobalData owned brand.

Energy Department finalizes loan for Michigan nuclear plant revival

Zack Budryk
Mon, September 30, 2024




The Energy Department on Monday announced it has finalized a $1.5 billion loan to restart a shuttered Michigan nuclear power plant.

The loan guarantee will restart the Holtec Palisades nuclear plant in Covert Township, which shut down in 2022 after five decades of operation. The reboot will mark the first for a nuclear reactor after the removal of its fuel.

The Biden administration is also awarding $1.3 billion through the Department of Agriculture’s Empowering Rural America program to two rural electric cooperatives, which will discount electricity passed on to their members through emissions-free sources, such as the Holtec plant.


The administration projected the restarted Palisades plant, which still must go through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing approval process, will provide power until at least 2051 once brought back online. The administration estimated it will create or keep up to 600 local jobs, and the company has signed an agreement with 15 trade unions, according to the department.

“Nuclear power is America’s largest source of carbon-free of electricity, supporting hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs across the country and will play a critical role in tackling the climate crisis and protecting public health and the environment from its impacts,” said Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, a former Michigan governor, in a statement. “Under President Biden and Vice President Harris’ leadership, DOE and our partners across the federal government are working around the clock to ensure this vital source of clean electricity—and the vibrant workforce it supports— continues to power our nation for generations to come.”

Nuclear power largely fell out of favor during the Cold War amid anxieties about the potential for accidents, but policymakers in recent years have revisited it as a renewable and emissions-free power source. The announcement comes shortly after the news that the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania, the site of a partial meltdown in 1979, will reopen to power Microsoft data centers.

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DOE, USDA announce over $2.8B for Palisades nuclear plant restart

Brian Martucci
Tue, October 1, 2024 



Dive Brief:

Holtec International will receive a loan guarantee of up to $1.52 billion from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office to restart operations at the 800-MW Palisades nuclear generating station in southwestern Michigan, the Biden-Harris administration said Monday.



Two regional electric cooperatives, Hoosier Energy and Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative, will receive about $1.3 billion from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to partially offset power purchases from the reopened facility, the administration said.


Holtec remains on track to restart Palisades in October 2025, company spokesperson Patrick O’Brien told Utility Dive earlier this month. It would be the first U.S. n
Dive Insight:

DOE in March announced a conditional loan guarantee of up to $1.52 billion for the Palisades restart. Monday’s announcement solidifies DOE’s commitment and, along with the USDA’s awards, represents crucial financing for Holtec’s effort.

The federal funding announcements for Palisades come less than two weeks after Constellation Energy said it would spend $1.6 billion to restart the idled 835-MW reactor at Three Mile Island unit 1 in 2028.

Constellation’s TMI-1 restart is supported by a 20-year PPA with Microsoft, which will use the electricity to run data centers in PJM Interconnection territory. Constellation declined to discuss the terms of the PPA, but the company’s investor presentation on the restart suggests it places a substantial premium on power generated by TMI-1, Studsvik Scandpower Chief Commercial Officer Keith Drudy told Utility Dive last month.

Morgan Stanley analysts estimate Constellation will sell power to Microsoft for $98/MWh compared to market power prices of around $50/MWh. Constellation also expects the unit’s output will receive a roughly $30/MWh clean energy tax credit.

The USDA awards to Hoosier Energy and Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative “will help reduce wholesale power costs, provide community benefits and keep electricity reliable and affordable” for the cooperatives’ residential and commercial members, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Xochitl Torres Small said in a press briefing.

Under their respective PPAs, Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative will procure 435 MW and Hoosier Energy 369 MW of Palisades’ generation, USDA said earlier this month.

Hoosier Energy will also use a portion of its award to procure 250 MW of renewable energy annually, USDA said.

The USDA award to Wolverine Power Supply Cooperative will help it reach its goal of procuring 100% carbon-free power by 2030, 10 years ahead of Michigan’s 2040 target, Torres Small said. The Palisades PPA is “a key component” of that plan, along with some 400 MW of solar capacity under development across Michigan, the cooperative said in March.

The USDA awards represent about one-quarter of the value of the cooperatives’ PPAs, a senior administration official said in the press briefing.

The DOE loan will fund inspection, testing, restoration, rebuilding and replacement of existing equipment at Palisades, another senior administration official said in the briefing. LPO has received nuclear-related loan requests worth more than $65 billion, the senior administration official added.

“To dominate the industries of the future, we need to supply abundant, affordable, clean power,” National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi said in the briefing. “Palisades represents that potential.

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