The Nuclear Regulatory commission planned a public meeting in Michigan to discuss Holtec International’s planned restart of the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in Covert County, Mich.
The commission published the meeting notice online. In March, the Department of Energy conditionally agreed to loan Holtec $1.5 billion to restart the plant, something the company believes it can do by August 2025.
The NRC also planned a public meeting about the decommissioning, now completed, of Nuclear Ship Savannah, which remained docked in Baltimore.
The meeting was scheduled for May 8 and will discuss the license termination process for the first and so-far only nuclear-powered U.S. merchant ship. A joint venture of Radiation Safety and Control Services Inc. and EnergySolutions decommissioned the John-administration-vintage ship.
The Department of Energy this week said it would provide about $19 million to support nuclear energy programs at U.S. universities at the undergraduate and graduate levels.
The funding was channeled through multiple DOE programs, according to an agency press release published Monday.
Obituary
James Frances “Mickey” McDermott, a former head of human resources for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in the early part of the new millennium who swore a commissioner into office in 2006, died March 28. He was 86, according to an obituary posted online.
McDermott had a 40-year career with the NRC, according to the obit. He came to the commission after leaving the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church. He took holy orders in Rome in 1964. He left the priesthood to marry, according to the obit.
