Public meeting about ownership change for Palisades nuclear plant comes this week
This week, federal regulators will hold a public meeting to discuss plans to transfer the operating license for the Palisades nuclear power plant.
Entergy Corp. agreed to sell the aging nuclear plant in southwest Michigan to Holtec Intl. in 2018.
Patrick O’Brien is a spokesman for Comprehensive Decommissioning International, the joint U.S.-Canadian company formed by Holtec to oversee the decommissioning of nuclear power plants in the United States.
O’Brien says Tuesday’s meeting is a standard pre-meeting with the NRC to discuss the pending license transfer application. He expects the company will submit a formal License Transfer Application to the NRC in the next couple weeks.
If the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approves the license transfer, the Camden, New Jersey based company will oversee the decommissioning of Palisades starting in 2022.
“The problem with Holtec is they’re going to try to do as little clean up as they can get away with,” says Kevin Kamps with Beyond Nuclear, a nuclear waste watchdog, “They’re going to take as many short cuts on high level waste management as they can get away with…and then pocket all the remaining money.”
