News Release > Palisades Power Plant Begins Scheduled $62M Refueling, Maintenance Outage

Palisades Power Plant Begins Scheduled $62M Refueling, Maintenance Outage

10/29/2018

COVERT, Mich. – Palisades Power Plant has begun a scheduled $62 million refueling and maintenance outage, reflecting owner and operator Entergy Corp.’s continuing commitment to safe, secure, and reliable operations until the facility’s permanent retirement in spring of 2022. It is the 26th such outage since the plant opened in 1971 and comes 15 days after it was taken offline to successfully replace a control rod drive seal and a transformer.

During the scheduled refueling and maintenance outage, which began yesterday, trained professionals will replace about one-third of the fuel in the reactor and inspect hundreds of pipes, pumps, electrical components and other equipment. About 1,000 skilled supplemental workers will help Palisades’ 600 full-time employees complete the upgrades, inspections, and replacements that can only be completed while the plant is shut down.

In addition to the $62 million investment, Entergy has allocated more than $170 million since 2014 to upgrade Palisades’ already-robust fire protection program through implementation of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA-805) program.

“The highly trained personnel at Palisades have operated the plant safely and reliably, day in and day out, since the plant’s last refueling about 18 months ago,” said Charlie Arnone, Site Vice President and Entergy’s top official at the plant. “The company continues to make all investments needed to ensure safe, secure and reliable operations through the plant’s permanent closure in 2022. Palisades is recognized as a top performer within the industry and ranks in the NRC’s highest safety category because of these important investments and the professionalism and hard work of our team.”

This refueling and maintenance outage is the first of two remaining at Palisades before the plant’s retirement. On Aug. 1, Entergy announced that it had agreed to sell the subsidiaries that own Palisades and the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Mass., to a Holtec International subsidiary for accelerated decommissioning after their respective shutdowns and reactor defuelings. For Palisades, that transaction would not occur until after the spring of 2022. The sales include the transfer of the licenses, spent fuel, and Nuclear Decommissioning Trusts. The transactions are subject to conditions to closing, including approvals from the NRC 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