Article content
Enterprise Corporation said Friday it has shut down a nuclear power plant in Michigan permanently, although the Biden administration plans to rescue plants like it because they generate virtually carbon-free electricity.
Enterprise shut down Michigan’s 800-megawatt Palisades plant, which has been in operation for more than 50 years.
“After careful observation, operators have made a conservative decision to shut down the plant as soon as possible due to the effectiveness of a control rod drive seal,” said a statement about the enterprise plant.
Article content
The plant was scheduled to close on May 31, but efforts are underway to save it.
Gina McCarthy, the White House’s national climate adviser, said existing nuclear power plants would be needed to meet the Biden administration’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The Biden administration last month launched a 6 billion program to help save nuclear power plants, which are facing stiff competition from rising energy costs and other power generation sources, including natural gas and renewable energy.
The first step in the civil nuclear credit program was to shut down the PG&E Corporation-owned Palisades and the Diablo Canyon plant in California. It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post.
Article content
The plan, which was funded by last year’s bipartisan infrastructure bill, could help save other nuclear plants instead.
With the closure, the United States will now have 92 nuclear reactors, more than any other country, but in 2012 nuclear power was at its highest.
The Department of Energy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Proponents of the Polysides plant, which employs more than 600 workers, had hoped that other utilities would buy it to prevent it from shutting down.
“We haven’t received any offers,” Mark Sullivan, an Entergy spokesman, told Reuters. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner in Washington and Ruhi Soni in Bangalore; Editing by Maju Samuel, Bernard Orr)