Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and other senior officials from President Joe Biden’s (D) administration were to tour the Palisades Training Center in Covert County, Mich., on Monday, the Department of Energy said.
The training center, operated by Holtec International, supports the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, which the Jupiter, Fla.-based company is trying to restart by September 2025 with a $1.5 billion DOE loan that was finalized in August and conditionally granted in March.
The visit from the senior administration officials is part of a Midwest tour promoting the administration’s support for nuclear power, according to a DOE press release.
Holtec, which bought Palisades from Entergy in 2022, needs regulatory relief from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to do so, and the NRC chair has said it could grant that relief as soon as May.
Meanwhile, the commission has convened an atomic safety licensing board to conduct a hearing about the license applications Holtec has requested so that it can restart Palisades. Local activists, including a former Palisades employee, asked for the hearings as part of a campaign to stop the restart, at least temporarily.