Can a Closed Nuclear Power Plant From the ’70s Be Brought Back to Life?

Wall Street Journal ^ | 8/26/2024 | Eric Niiler

[buwaya]

Michigan is trying to restore a decommissioned nuclear power plant (Palisades, Van Buren County MI) to operation. The State forced its decommissioning in 2022. Now it wants to start it up again.

This is of a piece with Gavin Newsome cancelling the decommissioning of the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, originally scheduled for 2025.

"The federal government and the state of Michigan are spending nearly $2 billion to restart the reactor on the shores of Lake Michigan. When it reopens, Palisades will become the first decommissioned nuclear plant anywhere to be put back to work.

Driving the rethink: soaring demand for electricity from AI server farms, and billions on offer in state and federal loans and tax subsidies for nuclear energy in infrastructure and green power investment programs. Data centers alone are projected to account for 8% of U.S. electricity demand by 2030, up from around 3% in 2022, according to an April report by Goldman Sachs. "

[buwaya]

There is a quiet change ongoing re the anti-nuke stance of the "deep state". To those of us who have been pro-nuke for the last 50 years its a bit disconcerting. On the one hand a degree of sanity returning is a welcome development, on the other hand there are decades of piled up bitterness to deal with.

What I would like to see is an open declaration of repentance, and acts of penance. Crawling up cathedral steps on bloody knees for instance.

[NorthMountain]

Seppuku ...

[logi_cal869]

Trillion$$ wasted, and this manufactured ‘crisis’ is prompting both relicensing and restarting of decommissioned antique nuclear reactor power plants rather than construction of new technology reactors across the country.

Think hard about that.

Full disclosure: I am not anti-nuclear.

I am anti-stupid.

[null and void]

As long as they are refurbishing and upgrading, would it be possible to use thorium?

[hinckley buzzard]

Doing both will probably be required. Fire up any recently closed ones and revive the ones slated for shutdown, start the process of building new ones. Get SMRs on the road while we’re at it.

[buwaya]

Thorium would require a very different design.

Maybe some designated unit sites could be reused. I’m thinking Humboldt Bay or San Onofre or Rancho Seco.

[lurk]

We can build nuke plants that can fit on a railroad car and light up a city. We just don’t want to.

[MinorityRepublican]

Trillion$$ wasted, and this manufactured ‘crisis’ is prompting both relicensing and restarting of decommissioned antique nuclear reactor power plants rather than construction of new technology reactors across the country.

Cheaper to restart an old nuke plant.

[adorno]

So,it’s true what what that “West Side story” song said...

Everything’s free in America,

everything’s free in America.

No wonder so many illegals are coming to America.

[null and void]

It was worth asking...

[null and void]

I could use a Mr. Fission in my car...

[Governor Dinwiddie]

Back in the 1970s and 1980s the libs declared war on nuclear power plants and essentially killed the American nuclear industry. All the nuclear power plants were going to break down and burn a hole all the way to China. I know it's true because Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas told me so in "The China Syndrome". Bring all your science and engineering questions to movie stars—they know!

[PGR88]

Andrew “nipple rings” Cuomo and one Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in 2015 conspired to close New York’s Indian Point nuclear plant, which supplied 30% of (zero carbon) baseload power to NY City and downstate NY. It finally ceased operations in April 2021

It was originally built in 1961 and operated continuously without any problems.

It was fully depreciated and produced electricity for under 3 cents per KWH

Just for reference - Average charge to NY Consumers is 28-30 cents/KWH

[buwaya]

Exactly so.

I think its the fashion these days to have a “truth and reconciliation commission” to wipe away the sins of the guilty.

[Last Dakotan]

This is why the stupid Germans made sure to dynamite theirs.

[Komarlady]

I’d agree with that.

[Yardstick]

My pet theory is that the shift in attitude towards nuclear reflects a changing of the guard on the left. It was dogmatic for leftists to oppose nuclear during the Cold War as a way to offset the West’s advantages against the USSR. They held that position for decades, to the point where it was reflexive. But nowadays there’s no benefit to the left in opposing nuclear, so that position is fading away. I’ll bet if you took a poll you’d find much less anti-nuclear feeling among young leftists. They’ve moved on to other things like the homo agenda. That’s the new battlefront.

[Bullish]

But... But, you just plug things in and they go, right liberals?

[IndispensableDestiny]

conspired to close New York’s Indian Point nuclear plant

Let's not for get Shorham on Long Island. Six billion dollars to build then remove the plant, charged back to LILCO customers. LILCO paid Philadelphia Power $50 million to take the nuclear fuel it needed for its own use.

[PGR88]

Let's not for get Shorham on Long Island. Six billion dollars to build then remove the plant, charged back to LILCO customers.

Another Cuomo nuclear screw-job on NY'ers - this time it was Mario.