SMOKING GUN: 3 Years Since Holtec Con Job
July 9, 2025

[Yard sign design by Michigan Safe Energy Future-Kalamazoo Chapter, and Shut Down Palisades Campaign; photo by Kevin Kamps]
Beginning in 2020, Holtec perpetrated a bait and switch trick at Palisades on Lake Michigan. Promising to decommission the half-century old, perpetually problem-plagued reactor after Entergy shut it for good on 5/20/22, Holtec instead applied to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) just a week after taking over Palisades on 6/28/22. We eventually got ahold of Holtec’s smoking gun document through a FOIA request to the State of Michigan. Holtec requested many billions of dollars in bailouts from DOE to restart Palisades, which is unprecedented, unneeded, and extremely risky. Holtec listed many price tags for restart, the single largest line item, $510 million, for steam generator replacement, which Holtec is now trying to sidestep.
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