(Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Energy said on Wednesday it would loan Holtec International $1.52 billion to help restart its Palisades nuclear power plant in Michigan.
The Biden administration believes nuclear power is essential in the fight against climate change and for its goals to decarbonize the country’s power grid by 2035 and the economy by 2050. Nuclear plants also offer some of the highest-paying union jobs in the energy industry.
Earlier this year, the administration also agreed to provide $1.1 billion in credit to keep PG&E Corp’s Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in operation in California.
Florida-based Holtec says it aims to bring online its 800 megawatts (MW) Palisades nuclear plant, which it has said would employ more than 600 workers, along with its two small modular reactor units (SMRs).
NuScale’s SMR technology is the only one to have received design certification from the U.S. nuclear power regulator last year. But the company has faced cost and subscription issues and had to shelve one of its SMR projects.
Holtec had originally bought Palisades in 2022 from Entergy to decommission the plant as it struggled to compete with natural gas-fired plants and renewable energy, but started looking into reopening the shut reactor.
The company has also already signed long-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with electric co-ops Wolverine Power Cooperative and Hoosier Energy in Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana.
Reuters in January reported that the company was in talks for the loan from the DOE for the plant.
(Reporting by Seher Dareen in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
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