Nuclear is getting a reaction in Michigan. Is it reaching critical mass? (2024)

LANSING, MI — The warnings are dire.

If we don’t curb greenhouse emissions, the planet will be damaged in ways that make human existence difficult. And Michigan is squarely in the middle of the debate over🃏 how to produce enough energy to meet global demand without pumping more climate-warming gases into the atmosphere.

There is a well-known technꩲology 🎀that can help, but it comes with some baggage.

Nuclear energy is emerging as a critical p💮iece in solving the climate puzzle as urgency increases and renewable sources struggle to fill supply gaps caused by coal plant closures.

Related: Nuclear could be a climate hero, but meltdown fears linger

During the last international climate summit in Ja🍃nuary, more than 20 nations agreed to triple their capacity of nuclear energy — which provides huge amounts of baseload electricity without harmful carbon emissions using a fraction of the raw material. One uranium fuel pellet creates as much energy as a ton of coal, 149 gallo𓆉ns of oil, or 17,000 cubic feet of natural gas.

In Michigan, a Florida company is attempting to repower the closed Palisades nuclear plant along the Lake Michigan shoreline n❀ear South Haven. If successful, it would rejoin the state’s two other nuclear s𒐪tations and become the first U.S. reactor to ever resume service after the onset of decommissioning.

But some environmental groups aren’t swayed. Nuclear energy produces radiation, an inherent public safety and environmenta🎐l risk, and it leaves behind waste that remains at reactor sites in perpetuity because the U.S. still lacks a federal repository. Nuclear is a fa𝄹lse promise, they argue.

Elected leaders are on board, though. A new bipartisan nuclear caucus is gaining members in the state Legislature. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a centrist Democrat with close ties to the Biden administration, has made it clear that Michigan is all-in on nuclear and expanding its capacity is 𝔉critical for 🐷meeting a new 2040 state mandate for total reliance on “clean” energy.

The climate crisis has made nuclear a bipartisan issue in Lansing, where lawmakers set aside $150 million in 2023 to aid the Palisades restart and are poised to double that this year. That investment helped Holtec International secure a $1.52 billion U.S. Dep♈artme🉐nt of Energy loan to help reopen Palisades.

New bipartisan state legislation would also aid deve♋lopment of new small reactors and establish research and training programs to boost nuclear energy expansion.

More: Legislation would expand nuclear generation

“It’s just hard toಌ argue that this isn’t a fundamentally important piece of the puzzle,” said state Rep. Joey Andrews, a lakeshore Democrat who helped Palisades land state and federal support.

“You look at the impacts of climate change and at how we’re trying to beat this 🍬two degrees Celsius increase benchmark🔴 — and we’re just so far behind,” Andrews said.

“And so, you start thinking, ‘OK, how doꦆ we make big impacts?’”

‘We are very bullish on nuclear’

Michigan currently has two operational nuclear plants – DTE Energy’s Fermi 2 plant on Lake Erie near Monroe and American Electric Power’s Donald 🐼C. Cook plant on Lake🧜 Michigan in Berrien County near Bridgman.

The plants generate “baseload” energy — d🐼ependable, reliable power that’s consistently there to meet demand. Combined, the two plants offer the grid about 3,500 megawatts of electricity; about 25 percent of the state’s total energy portfolio.

Until itಞ closed in 2022, Palisades supplied 8🌄00 megawatts.

As regulations tighten on coal plants and utilities retire them, large amounts of baseload power are leaving the grid. That helps reduce greenhouse emissions — but not entir🧸ely, because natural gas plants, which still emit some carbon as a fossil fuel, are increasingly 🎃filling the supply gaps.

In the United States, energy demand is expected to increase 27 percent by 2050. Much of that is being driven by increasing energy-intensive data needs and the adoption of electric vehicles in states like Michigan, which is attempting to𝐆 grow its economy by expanding its population and industrial𝔉 base.

At scale, such demand equals an increase in🅰 greenhouse gas emissions under most scenarios because oil and natural gas are still expected to be a huge percentage of overall global energy supply over the next two decades.

That throws in doubt the potential to prevent the w𒀰orld’s average surface temperature from rising more than above pre-industrial levels by the year 2100 — the level of increase which Paris Agreement signatory nations like the U.S. agreed to tr♉y and remain below.

Renewable sources like wind, solar and hydropower are a growing part of the solution — but such projects are facing increased pushback in rural areas where there is space for them. They are not coming online fast enꩲough to offset the loss of megawatts from coalꩲ. In Michigan, renewables account for only about 15 percent of the state’s energy portfolio.

Even if renewables were being built more quickly, experts say major advances in battery storage o꧙r long-range transmission would be necessary before wind and solar could always instantly deliver power during peak demand.

Michigan has only 16 years to reach 100 percent carbon-free electricity. That’s more than simply a lofty goal — it’s a legal requirement signed into state law last year.

, the International Energy Agency said global nuclear capac🧜ity must double by 2050 to reach net-zero emissions targets. Federal officials say the U.S. must be even more aggressive. The Biden administration’s climate agenda relies heavily on the growth of nuclear power, which accounts for about half of the domestic carbon-free energy supply.

President Biden which bans the import of Russian enriched ura𝄹nium and unlocks billions to rebuild American domestic uranium processing.

“We are obviously very bullish on nuclear. We want to k🐬eep plants online, get new small-modular reactors online,” said U.S. Ene🅠rgy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. “We have to triple the amount of nuclear energy in the United States if we’re going to meet our goal by 2050 of net zero. So, we feel very strongly that nuclear must be a part of that clean energy future.”

More: Ambitious 🍸Palisades plan creates cheerleaders and🥀 critics

That does not sit well with everyone.

“It’s dirty. It’s dangerous, slow, and expensive,” said Tim Minotas, political director of Sierra Club Michigan. “We can meet these needs through a combination of renewables — true renewables — energy efficiency, storage, demand response and other t🧸hings like distributed generation.”

“We can absolutely meet our needs w🐽ithout nuclear,” he said. “It’s just a waste of taxpayers’ money.”

Energy experts say it’s more nuanced than that.

“If you look at it holistically, it’s not clear which approach is the best,” said Johan💎na Mathieu, associate director of the Institute for Energy Solutions at 🐓the University of Michigan.

“Do you technically need (nuclear)? No. Do you need it because it makes sense as part of a portfolio of resources that is cost-effective and near♏-term achievable without massive inve⛎stment?” she said.

“Perhaps.”

The nuclear plant next door

In March, the state authored by the consulting firm Enercon which concluded that expanding nuclear generation 🧸in Michigan wouldn’t be cheap, but it is feasible and would provide long-term clean generation, local employment and spillover economic benefits.

“With any sort of new nuclear, a huge disadvantage is cost and the timeline to actually develop it,” said Katherine Peretick, a Michigan🍷 Public Service Commission member and energy engineer who oversaw the state’s feasibility study.

However, as opposed to a coal or natural g🔜as plant, it’s not the fuel itself that’s the major expense. The bulk of the cost goes into paying wo💧rkers’ salaries, Peretick said.

According to the study, a new nuclear plant built in either Ottawa or Monroe counties could create $3.7 billion in economic benefits and about 700-some 🍸long-term jobs.

The Monroe area is already home to the Fermi 2 nuclear plant and could host more reactors if owner🌳 DTE Energy decides to build another plant — for which it hoꦿlds an unused license the utility paid millions to secure in 2015.

But would Monroe residents welcome 🧜“Fermi 3″? Maybe.

Public support for nuclear energy is growing. New polling by and found that support for nuclear among the American public is on the rebound after tanking in the wake of the 2011 f*ckushima disaster in Japan. According to Pew, 57 percent of Americans now say th൲ey favor more nuclear generation. That’s an increase from 43 percent in 2020.

The polling gets trickier if you stack nuclear next to solar💞 and wind. A🔯mericans are still more likely to say they favor more solar power (82 percent) and wind power (75 percent) than nuclear.

However, absent a specific location, experts say national polling is an a☂bstraction. Wher🍸e projects are located makes a huge difference in public acceptance.

“When we talk about actually siting a nuclear plant or a small modular reactor, my suspicion is that it’s going to be very, very difficult to do that,” said Doug Bessette, a Michigan State University professor who researches community acceptance of energy projects. “So d✨ifficult, in fact, that I’m pretty pessimistic about our ability to do it.”

The Palisades reopening is a “really interesting scenario,” he said, because it’s a real-world exampꩲle of how choosing a site for a new nuclear plant in Michigan might play out.

In Southwest Michigan, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission got an earful in April during a public hearing on Holtec International’s plan to reopen Palisades. Fears of an accident are palpable among those who grew up during the Cold War and remember the Chernobyl disaster and Three Mile Island scare. Longtime neighbors accuse the plant of causing thyroid cancers and say it has a history of mishaps.

The plant’s proximity to Lake Michigan and the dry casks of used fuel which accumulate on site bother many, although regulators and plant operators say the storage containers are highly secure until the day when the federal government finally manages to build a permanen🧔t storage facility.

Among anti-🔴nuclear activists, there is also deep suspicion of Holtec. The company is eager to repower a facility it just purchased whereas its previous owner was not.

More: Nuclear waste along the Great ෴Lakes: How big is the risk?

“We’ve endured mistakes made by more qualified operators,” said Pam Zimmermann, a 51-year resident ofꦜ the nearby Palisades Park development, where neighbors claim the plant is responsible for thyroid cancers and other ailments. “We’ve tolerated more than our share.”

Others think the local eܫconomy needs the💫 plant back.

“I am not about to move my family out of there,” said Dylan Burnette, a Labo🔯rers Local union memไber who lives in Hagar Township near the plant.

“I want to see this be a successful project.”

The future of nuclear is small

Michigan may be the latest focal point in the nuclear debate thanks to Pal🃏isades, but the global climate reckoning has forced other states to rethink nuclear closures.

There are nuclear plants in the U.S., and many are at the end of thei♓r operating life.

In California, the DOE has toward prolonging operation of the state’s last nuclear plant, Diablo Canyo🐓n, past its 2025 closure date. Nuclear supporters in New 💎York are pointing to a after the Indian Point plant near Manhattan closed in 2021.

Building new nuclear plants isn’t cheap. Constr🔴uction standards for nuclear facilities cause enormous up-front costs. The nation’s two newest large-scale reactors at Plant Vogtle in Georgia cost $35 billion and t🍷ook seven extra years to complete.

America’s long pause on building nuclear facilities has🧜 contributed to that, say experts, although the expectation is that subsequent builds would learn from Vogtle’s mistakes.

Nonetheless, the cost and time of building new large re🍰actors is pushing the industry toward smaller designs. Units called small-modular reactors (SMRs), which are bui🀅lt in stages, are being designed and eyed for existing reactor sites like Palisades, where Holtec .

H🐻oltec is also eyeing the former Big Rock nuclear plant site near Charlevoix for SMR development.

the size of what the U.S. Navy uses in submarines are being eyed as attachments to data centers, industrial facilities, or far-flung locations in need🔴 of clean energy.

“You see companies now saying, ‘You know, I thi🅘nk I want my own dedicated power plant,’” said Todd Allen, director of the Univer♔sity of Michigan’s nuclear engineering department.

“We went through a bunch of years where energy growth in the U.S. was not that big. We didn’t need a bunch of new plants,” Allen said. “But with AI and data centers, energy deman๊ds are taking off again.”

Peretick, who developed energy storage projects before joining the🃏 state’s utility regulatory agency, said nuclear energy is undergoing a period of rapid technological a🦹dvancement. Exactly how that plays out in Michigan will be interesting to watch.

“I don’t know if new nuclear is necessarily going to be necessary for the state to meet its climate goals,” said P♓eretick. “But technology change𒁃s a lot faster than I expect, even.”

“We’re seeing just really drastic advancements in that technology. I don’t think there’s anything right now that we’re able to build in Michigan,” 🦄she said.

“But who knows? 2040 is a long ways away.”

Related stories:

Nuclear could be a climate🃏 hero, but meltdown fears linger

Nuclear waste along the Great Lakes: How big i🎃s the ris🎃k?

Dems embrace nuclear, but its radioactive fo♎r some

Ambitious🦩 P♔alisades plan creates cheerleaders and critics

Nuclear science students are on a mission

Hurried clean energy bills head to Whitmer’s desk

Whitmer signs clean energy mandate into law

Neighbors worry about Palisades restart plan

Another $150M earmarked for Palisades reboot

Palisades gets $1.5B loan for historic restart

Biparti🐷san bills aim to expand nuclear in Michigan

Two new small reactors eyed for Palisades site

Study says new nuclear needed for climate goals

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