Going Nuclear: Michigan’s Historic Nuclear Power Plant Reboot Has Traverse City Ties

For the first time in United States history, a decommissioned nuclear power plant is set to be brought back online – something supporters tout as a game-changing milestone in the move toward carbon-free energy and grid stability. And while the plant itself is located 200 miles south of Traverse City, a significant amount of the power from it will eventually be making its way to northern Michigan.

The facility is the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, an 800-megawatt nuclear power plant on Lake Michigan's shores in Van Buren County, between South Haven and Benton Harbor. Built in the late 1960s and officially commissioned for operation in December 1971, the plant was owned for decades by the Michigan-based CMS Energy Corporation before selling to Louisiana utility Entergy in 2007. Entergy operated it until it closed in 2022 due to a “control rod rive seal malfunction.” Holtec International, a New Jersey-based company, then took over  with plans of spearheading a two-decade decontamination and decommissioning process.

By the time it closed, the Palisades plant had operated for more than 50 years, employed thousands of people, and generated a total of more than 230 million megawatts of electricity.

Now the Palisades plant is getting a second act, with its resurrection tied to Traverse City by way of Cherryland Electric Co-op. Last year, the Associated Press reported that Holtec, with the support of Governor Gretchen Whitmer “and leaders in the Lake Michigan community where Palisades was an economic driver for 50 years,” had launched a campaign to reopen the plant.

That plan took a major step in September, when Holtec announced it had signed a power purchase agreement with Wolverine Power Cooperative. Under that “multi-decade” contract, Wolverine agreed to purchase up to two-thirds of the power generated by the Palisades plant for its five Michigan cooperative members; Cherryland Electric is one of those members.

According to Cherryland CEO Rachel Johnson, it will likely be late 2025 or early 2026 before the Palisades plant is actually switched back on. Last week, the federal government announced it would provide a $1.5 billion loan to help restart the plant. Even with that support, though, the facility faces a lengthy regulatory road, including rigorous inspections and tests overseen by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

When Palisades does reopen, Johnson says it will be a big deal for Cherryland and its 38,000 members. Currently, Cherryland has a power supply portfolio that is 60 percent carbon-free, including both nuclear and renewable sources. Between the Palisades commitment and approximately 300 megawatts of new solar Wolverine is working to bring online across the state, Johnson says Cherryland is “on a path to be well over 90 percent carbon-free” in the coming years.

Johnson says the competitive terms of the Wolverine-Holtec agreement – a 30-year power purchase commitment “at a fixed price with a single escalator clause in the contract” – should help shield members from growing volatility in electricity pricing.

“Power supply markets have been fluctuating from $30 a megawatt-hour to $70 a megawatt-hour, sometimes all within the same year,” Johnson notes. “Our ability to make a commitment at a fixed price helps us protect our members against that volatility and gives us a lot of predictability as we forecast future rates.”

Will those benefits be enough to outweigh the controversy and stigma that has long surrounded nuclear energy? Despite its status as a carbon-free form of energy, nuclear power has been the subject of considerable debate for decades, with opponents arguing that it poses significant risks to people and the environment. That debate has already been raging for years around the potential relaunch of the Palisades plant: Last January, a coalition of 115 organizations and 179 individuals sent a letter to U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, urging against efforts to revive the plant.

“The bailout and restart scheme ignores Palisades’ severe, high-risk, age-related degradation, including multiple worsening pathways to catastrophic reactor core meltdowns,” the coalition proclaimed in a press release. 

For her part, Johnson is confident that the NRC’s regulatory requirements will ensure the Palisades plant gets a full due-diligence safety assessment – along with any necessary repairs or upgrades – prior to turning back on. She’s also adamant that nuclear energy is an essential piece of the puzzle for global energy futures – something 34 nations, including the U.S., agreed on last month at a global Nuclear Energy Summit.

“Every form of power supply has its detractors and its advocates,” Johnson says. “But what I’m seeing is a recognition, both from the general public and from policymakers and regulators, that the only path to a stable power grid and a low-carbon future is one where we have to have nuclear.”

She continues: “If you read into any of the projections of electric loads tied to things like artificial intelligence, data centers, and growth in manufacturing, it’s clear that we're growing the need for electricity worldwide. We need power sources that are capable of producing energy 24/7/365, and we need the electricity we’re bringing online to have a lessened carbon impact. Nuclear power checks all those boxes. At full output, Palisades produces enough energy to power about 800,000 homes, and that’s 24/7/365. So, I see this project as a really important grid stabilization effort for Michigan.”

Photo courtesy of Holtec International.