AI is bringing old nuclear plants out of retirement

Summary

The Palisades Nuclear Generating Station is nestled between sand dunes on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. It shut down for financial reasons in 2022. Three years later, it’s on the cusp of reopening, with hundreds of workers streaming through its security barriers every day.Palisades is on track to restart in early 2026. When it does, it will be the first nuclear plant in the United States to generate electricity again after being decommissioned. Nick Culp of Holtec, the company that owns the plant, said its revival is a response to a surge in demand for electricity.“We have seen [Michigan]’s baseload generation go offline at a rapid rate as they’ve moved away from fossil generation,” Culp said. “How do you backfill that when you see demand on the horizon like [artificial intelligence], like data storage, like keeping the lights on at home, and new manufacturing?”Palisades Nuclear Generating Station is on track to restart in 2026. (Chris Bentley/Here & Now)Nuclear is part of the answer to that question, Culp said, and the government agrees. Michigan gave $300 million to the restart — part of its goal to have 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040 — and the federal government gave the project a loan of more than $1.5 billion.That money is part of the Trump administration’s investment in what it’s calling a “nuclear energy renaissance.” In May, the White House released a plan to quadruple American nuclear power by 2050, following a similar pledge from the Biden administration.Meeting that goal would require dozens of new reactors. But whether they’re traditional power plants or new designs, nuclear reactors are expensive and slow to build. Facing a crunch between climate goals and rising electricity demand, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Iowa are reopening plants that closed just a few years ago.Powering upWhen the Palisades plant in Michigan closed in 2022, Jim Byrd said he left his office of more than two decades “with a heavy heart.”He was working at a nuclear plant...