ZOMBIE and SMRs?! Palisades Targeted for Both

[Yard sign design by Michigan Safe Energy Future-Kalamazoo Chapter and Shut Down Palisades Campaign. Photo by Kevin Kamps.]

April 2025 marks three years since this nuclear nightmare began: Holtec’s decommissioning scam was revealed at the Palisades atomic reactor on the Great Lakes shore in Michigan. Holtec CEO Krishna Singh floated the trial balloon of building so-called “Small Modular Reactors,” and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer followed with her unprecedented, unneeded, exorbitant, and risky proposal to restart the long problem-plagued, more than half-century old reactor, after its closure for good. As with its zombie restart scheme, Holtec seeks exemptions, waivers, and massive bailouts for its SMR-300s, also targeted at Palisades’ sibling Lakeside nuclear plant site, Big Rock Point, 250 miles north. These include limited work authorizations from NRC, and $7.4 billion in loan guarantees from DOE.

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