Reality Forces Nuclear Power Back on the U.S. Agenda

Sept. 17, 2022 (EIRNS)—The Hill reports that last week, Camden, New Jersey-based Holtec International plans to reopen the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan, which had been shut down in May for green ideology reasons. Holtec has applied for a portion of the $6 billion appropriated in last year’s infrastructure bill. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer stated that she had sent a letter to the Department of Energy to support Holtec’s application for “a federal grant under the Civil Nuclear Credit Program” to save Palisades and thus protect “600 high-paying jobs at the plant and 1,100 additional jobs throughout the community.”

This potential victory follows hard upon the California legislature’s vote to provide funds to keep the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant operating. That plant provides nearly 10% of California’s electricity and might have saved a considerable number of lives during the recent heat wave. (According to the San Francisco Chronicle, deaths from heat waves are woefully underreported. From 2010 to 2019, California officially recorded 599 deaths from heat exposure, but the actual toll was apparently closer to 3,900.)

Nuclear scored another victory in September 2021, when the Illinois legislature voted to appropriate $700 million to subsidize the continued operation of the Byron and Dresden nuclear plants.