Some key leaders from around Southwest Michigan had a chance to learn more about small modular nuclear reactors with a tour of Holtec International’s manufacturing facility in Camden, New Jersey this week.
Holtec, the owner of the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in Covert, welcomed state Representative Joey Andrews and Benton Harbor Mayor Marcus Muhammad for the visit on Monday. Holtec is planning to build some small modular reactors at Palisades, and Andrews tells us the company wanted to show its visitors the advantages of the technology.
“So the idea is that they can roll them off of an assembly line, effectively,” Andrews said. “It’s a standardized reactor, and it’s smaller, so you don’t have to have the giant build out of a traditional plant. So the ones they’re looking at for Covert, it’ll be 300 megawatt reactors instead of the existing Covert reactor, which is like 800 megawatts.”
Andrews says the SMRs being built by Holtec are based on existing technology, so the company thinks the approval process will be relatively quick.
“They seem to think that, about 18 months, two years to manufacture, and then another couple of years of site prep, you can get these things deployed. So if that turns out to be true, that’s, I think, going to really change a lot in the energy landscape.”
Holtec believes SMRs will become a trillion-dollar industry. The company in 2023 announced plans to bring two small modular reactors to Palisades once the current 800-megawatt reactor is back online.
Holtec told us this week the Palisades restart is in its final stretch, with the reopening likely by the end of the year or very early next year.
