A rural energy co-op in northern Michigan wants a nuclear revival

The historic restart of a shuttered nuclear power plant is planned for later this year on the shores of Lake Michigan, and a northern Michigan energy cooperative is playing a major role.

Last fall, the Biden administration finalized $1.3 billion in grants to two rural power cooperatives, as part of efforts to reopen the Palisades Nuclear Plant in southwest Michigan's Covert Township.

Of that, Wolverine Power Cooperative in Cadillac will receive about $650 million and Indiana-based Hoosier Energy will get $675 million as part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Empowering Rural America program, which aims to help rural electric cooperatives transition to clean energy.

The state of Michigan is also chipping in, allocating $300 million for the restart, which is expected to bring back 800 megawatts of power — enough for some 800,000 homes.

Wolverine’s agreement with the plant’s owner, Holtec International, means it will buy over half of that power.

Nuclear history

Palisades first opened in 1971 and shut down in May 2022, citing financial reasons. The revival of the plant, which had begun decommissioning, would be a first in United States history. Now Holtec, which bought the plant with plans to decommission it, wants to reopen it later this year.

The plant provided decades of work for those nearby, and the planned restart has garnered support from some, including local officials who say it will help the economy. But there are ongoing concerns from activists and people who live in the region about the environmental and health risks it could pose.

Nuclear power also divides environmental groups and policymakers, though perhaps not presidential administrations. The Biden administration threw its weight behind nuclear and President Donald Trump's choice for energy secretary signaled support for nuclear in his confirmation hearings.

Nominee Chris Wright, the executive of an oil and gas company, has a background in nuclear energy and has said he supports expanding it, along with geothermal energy and liquefied natural gas, though there may be resistance from others on Trump’s team.

Up North impact

Covert Township, where Palisades is located, is hours south of northern Michigan. But Wolverine Power Cooperative officials in Cadillac say when they heard about the possibility of the plant reopening, they acted quickly.

“We made a cold call to the owner of the power plant to say, ‘We're here in Michigan. We have rural customers that need long term, stable, affordable, reliable [power], and want decarbonized power,’" Wolverine Chief Operating Officer Zach Anderson said during an interview with IPR in October.

Wolverine is a generation cooperative, so it buys or creates electricity and then transmits that to members like northern Michigan’s Cherryland Electric Cooperative, to sell to customers.

Anderson said the plant’s reopening could allow electric cooperatives to reach the state’s climate goals a decade ahead of time while maintaining steady prices.

Nuclear power is considered clean energy under the state’s 2023 climate legislation, which requires a 100% clean energy standard by 2040. That doesn’t prohibit utilities from operating fossil fuel power sources, but the power they sell to customers must be carbon free.

“Palisades will allow us to meet that target sooner,” Anderson said, helping the co-op provide all clean energy to its members by 2030.

While the cooperative is obligated to help its member utilities meet state requirements, Anderson said Wolverine itself isn’t required to do so, since it’s regulated by the feds, not the state. It also plans to continue operating seven natural gas plants and selling that energy back to the regional grid.

Anderson said Palisades is a “perfect fit” for Wolverine, as a current nuclear contract with a different provider expires in 2028 and more fossil fuels are phased out.

And it has substantial support. Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration has backed the plant for years, and state officials wrote a letter to the Biden administration in support of funding the co-op’s push for nuclear power.

Push for nuclear

Renewed interest in nuclear power comes amid increased demand for electricity from things like data centers and solar facilities and efforts to lower greenhouse gas emissions.

A common argument in its favor is that nuclear is necessary to supplement less reliable renewable energy coming from the sun and wind.

Matthew Memmott, a professor of chemical engineering at Brigham Young University who studies nuclear energy, said states like Michigan need to have what’s called baseload power plants — which are always on — and nuclear power is one way to meet that need and provide carbon-free energy.

And the future of nuclear power could involve smaller reactors. According to the Department of Energy, small modular reactors, or SMRs, are central to developing more nuclear power; they have smaller footprints and can be built in more diverse locations. Holtec wants to build two in Michigan by 2031, adding another 600 megawatts of power.

Pat O’Brien, Holtec’s director of government affairs and communications, said the company has begun preparations for the SMRs, including test borings and some land clearing.

“We feel 2030 is realistic, provided funding is obtained,” he wrote in an email to IPR.

Allison Macfarlane is a professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver who directs its public policy school and chaired the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 2012 to 2014. She said the possibility of smaller reactors has generated much excitement.

But ambitious timelines for SMR development seem unrealistic to her. For one, none are currently operating in the United States. And Macfarlane said taking them from design to production is a long and costly process.

“All of this takes time, and so I would imagine to really get anywhere with some of these reactors, certainly to the commercial level, you're looking at over a decade, probably two decades,” she said.

Still, the potential for such advancements has caught the attention of energy co-ops across the country, according to Memmott with Brigham Young University, because they could provide another option to buy power produced locally or regionally.

“The advantages to that are now you have distributed electricity generation,” Memmott said. “You don't have to overbuy these massive plants. You don't have to figure out how to shift electricity all around, which is kind of a complicated process.”

Divisive debate

There are few energy issues more galvanizing than nuclear power.

Palisades faced various problems when it was running. Federal regulators identified safety violations over the years. And it also dealt with shut downs, like in 2013, when it went offline for several weeks after leaking dozens of gallons of diluted radioactive water into Lake Michigan.

Kevin Kamps, a Kalamazoo-based radioactive waste specialist with the group Beyond Nuclear, doesn’t agree with state laws or scientists calling nuclear power clean, and thinks the restart is ill advised.

“This is unprecedented risk taking that they're talking about now. They've never done this before. It's not needed,” he said. “Renewables are really the way to go, not resurrecting very problematic nuclear power plants.”

Kamps said concerns around reliability can be addressed through investments in energy storage and energy efficiency, “yet we're going to waste vast amounts of public money on this Palisades restart scheme.” He pointed to other researchers who have argued that nuclear power is a dangerous use of money and time, and that it’s possible for the world to run solely on sun, wind and water.

Beyond Nuclear has been an outspoken critic of Holtec, and was part of a coalition that signed a letter to former U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm opposing the Palisades restart. Among longstanding concerns are radioactive contamination and nuclear waste storage. (At the Palisades site it's currently stored in steel and concrete casks.)

Along with worries over the plant’s infrastructure, Kamps said accidents at other sites show the risks of running nuclear plants, like the partial meltdown of Fermi I in Monroe County in 1966.

Financial struggles contributed to shutdowns of nuclear plants in the U.S. in recent years, as things like natural gas production and wind expanded. Critics say nuclear is far too expensive to continue investing in. Others, like the public policy nonprofit the Mackinac Center have argued that costs associated with nuclear power are misunderstood and exacerbated by policy decisions.

Some environmental groups, including representatives with Groundwork Center for Resilient Communities in Traverse City and Sierra Club Michigan, hold that the government should focus on things like expanding renewables and developing energy storage instead.

Still, nuclear power made up a quarter of Michigan’s electric generation as of October, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, while renewable energy made up over 13%. Supporters of the restart say the Palisades plant will provide a steady source of carbon-free energy to supplement things like wind and solar.

Macfarlane, the University of British Columbia professor, thinks nuclear will play a major role in the coming decades.

"It's really important. I mean, it's a fifth of the nation's electricity supply. I do understand some of the concerns," she said, but "I think climate change just poses the bigger threat by far. We need to get off of fossil [fuels]."

What’s next

Before reopening Palisades, Holtec has to get approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which must assess the facility, including its safety and infrastructure. As Michigan Public reported, regulators have called Holtec's timeline “very, very demanding.”

For instance, inspectors are looking at issues with the plant’s steam generators, which might affect the timeline for the restart.

“We did tube inspections on those to ensure that they're in good working condition for restart. We found some degradation in some of those tubes — more than we anticipated,” said Holtec’s O’Brien. “So what we had to do there was come up with a repair plan,” which they talked about at a recent public meeting.

If Palisades didn’t restart, Wolverine Cooperative wouldn't lose any money, but it would take longer to reach the 100% clean energy standard, said Anderson, the COO.

“We have a good head start on what we need to meet those long term objectives toward the members’ obligations, toward that 2040 goal,” he said. Still, “it'll take a lot more solar to replace something like Palisades.”

Beyond Nuclear, meanwhile, has intervened in the NRC's licensing process for the restart. Kamps said if necessary, they will take the matter to federal court.

"We'll fight it as long as we can, till the last opportunity," Kamps said. "We feel that strongly about it."

What happens under the Trump administration remains to be seen. But last year saw bipartisan support for legislation supporting nuclear power, according to Barry Rabe, a professor emeritus of environmental policy at the University of Michigan.

Michigan has a long history of nuclear power, Rabe said, and the state government “has become much more receptive in the last few years to sustain or expand nuclear, in large part because it is a non-carbon form of energy, even though it raises other environmental issues and concerns.”

More plants could reopen amid a resurgence of interest. And Rabe said this is one issue where the state could have “substantial latitude and support from the federal government, possibly without major changes from the Biden years to the Trump years.”
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