Trump's attack on Biden's IRA spending raises could complicate Palisades restart effort | The Blade

 

Trump's attack on Biden's IRA spending raises could complicate Palisades restart effort

TOM HENRY
The Blade
 
Jan 23, 2025
 
President Trump’s freeze on Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act spending has, if nothing else, caused some confusion about the future of the historic Palisades nuclear plant restart effort and its ability to remain on the schedule outlined by its owner, Holtec International.
 
The cornerstone of the unprecedented project is a $1.52 billion loan agreement the U.S. Department of Energy finalized in September with Holtec.
 
The DOE money for that loan is coming from the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act, distributions from which Trump has frozen through an executive order. He also has ordered unspent money to be returned.
 
The IRA has been called America’s largest single investment in fighting climate change. Trump opposes it because, as a matter of policy, he doesn’t want to spend money on climate change projects.
 
“I definitely think it's causing confusion, without knowing exactly how the deal is structured,” said Edwin Lyman, director of Nuclear Power Safety for the Cambridge, Mass.-based Union of Concerned Scientists. “I think it depends on the project. At the minimum, it's confusing.” 
 
For now, oil and natural gas drilling “will be king” under Trump, Mr. Lyman said.
 
The Nuclear Energy Institute, the nuclear industry’s chief lobbyist group on Capitol Hill, has in recent years rebranded the nuclear industry as a leading strategy for reducing climate-altering carbon dioxide emissions.
 
“The nuclear industry has been very successful in converting Democrats,” Mr. Lyman said. “That could backfire.”
 
But Nick Culp, Holtec Palisades senior manager of government affairs and communications, told The Blade he’s confident the project will remain on schedule and the DOE loan will be unharmed because of Trump’s general support of nuclear power as an energy source.
 
 
“We're very confident, based on the very strong support we're hearing from the President and his nominees,” Mr. Culp said. “We feel very confident the support will be there and there will be a place in which Palisades fits with America's energy agenda.”
 
Holtec, which has never operated a nuclear plant, is trying to make Palisades the first nuclear plant in American history to go back online after it has been mothballed and put into its decommissioning phase.
 
The plant ceased operations in May of 2022 when its previous owner, Entergy, said it was doing so permanently for economic reasons.
 
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has been a strong supporter of the potential restart, calling the project an important part of her MI Healthy Climate Plan, which sets deadlines for the state to reduce its carbon emissions.
 
“We are reviewing. Thank you,” was the only statement received by The Blade from Ms. Whitmer’s office when asked for a comment about Trump’s executive order.
 
An online request for comment was submitted to White House communications, which acknowledged receipt but gave no immediate response.
 
“It’s certainly going to be disruptive,” Alan Blind, a retired nuclear power executive who once spent nearly seven years as the Palisades engineering director, said of Trump’s executive order.
 
While it’s possible the contract in place with the DOE will hold, even if all $1.52 billion hasn’t been distributed yet, that wouldn’t necessarily be the case if Holtec is found to be in violation of it.
 
He said there are multiple issues, one of the largest being the condition of the Palisades steam generator tubes.
 
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission verified at a recent meeting that steam generator tubes went two years before they were laid up in a wet chemical process that was supposed to be done immediately after shutdown if the goal was to preserve them for additional usage. That protocol is an industry standard supported by California-based EPRI, a consulting group the nuclear industry often relies upon.
 
Mr. Culp said the extent of damage of steam generator tubes was simply part of the inspection process. He did not respond when asked why it took so long to store them in the wet chemical process.
 
Kevin Kamps, an activist with Maryland-based Beyond Nuclear who grew up near the plant, said that safety assurances are “very dubious, as [the] NRC is completely captured by the industry it is supposed to regulate.”
 
The NRC has said multiple times, including recently, that it will not authorize restart unless it is convinced it is safe to do so.
 
The government regulator also reminded Holtec and its contractors during a public meeting at the NRCs national headquarters in Rockville, Md., last week that it is not beholden to the company’s timetable.
 
Mr. Culp told The Blade that Holtec is still eyeing restart for the fourth quarter of this year, despite issues raised by Trump’s executive order.
 
First Published January 23, 2025, 10:30 a.m.
 
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Submitted by admin on Fri, 01/24/2025 - 14:04