News Release > Palisades Power Plant Returns to Service

For Immediate Release

Palisades Power Plant Returns to Service

12/28/2018

Contact
Val Gent|269-764-2333|vgent@entergy.com

Palisades Power Plant Returns to Service after Successful Refueling, Comprehensive Inspections and Other Maintenance

Investment reinforces Entergy’s commitment to continued safe and reliable plant operations through Palisades’ retirement in 2022

COVERT, Mich. – Palisades Power Plant returned to service this morning, following the completion of its successful scheduled refueling and maintenance outage. Control room personnel returned the plant to operation, sending electricity to the grid after a planned shutdown that began October 28. This was the 26th refueling in the plant’s history.


“We are committed to continuing to provide safe, secure and reliable electricity to area families and businesses through the plant’s permanent closure in 2022,” said Charlie Arnone, Site Vice President and Entergy’s top official at Palisades. “Entergy continues to make the investments needed for the plant, as evidenced by the $87 million of work performed during this outage.”


During the scheduled refueling and maintenance outage, trained professionals replaced about one-third of the fuel in the reactor, inspected and upgraded hundreds of pipes, pumps, electrical components and other equipment.


“Around 1,900 professionals, including nearly 1,300 specialist contractors, performed hundreds of activities that can only occur while the plant is offline,” added Arnone. “Hundreds of thousands of person-hours of work were performed over the last several weeks to prepare Palisades for safe and continuous operation over the next 3 ½ years. Thanks to the pride, professionalism and hard work of our team, Palisades is recognized as a top performer within the nuclear power industry and ranks in the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s highest safety category.”


This was the second-to-last refueling outage at Palisades before the plant’s permanent retirement in the spring of 2022. On August 1, 2018, Entergy announced that it had agreed to sell the subsidiaries that own Palisades and the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Mass., to a subsidiary of U.S.-based Holtec International for purposes of accelerated decommissioning after those plants’ respective shutdowns and reactor defuelings. For Palisades, that transaction would not occur until after the spring of 2022 and would include the sale of the decommissioned Big Rock Point Plant near Charlevoix, Mich. The sales include the transfer of the licenses, spent fuel, and Nuclear Decommissioning Trusts. The transactions are subject to conditions to closing, including federal approval of the license transfers.

Background Information

The Palisades Power Plant employs about 600 workers and has been a part of the Van Buren County community since it began generating electricity in 1971. The plant generates 811 megawatts of virtually carbon-free electricity, enough to power more than 800,000 homes.


Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. Entergy owns and operates power plants with approximately 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, including nearly 9,000 megawatts of nuclear power. Entergy delivers electricity to 2.9 million utility customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Entergy has annual revenues of approximately $11 billion and more than 13,000 employees. Additional information is available at www.entergy.com.


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