Junk Plant Palisades Perminently Shuting Down in Oct 2018

Every nuke Plant is facing these kinds of unprecedented pressures. As a nuke is ending life, maintenance and upkeep becomes much more expensive. They compensate by reducing safety.

One must keep in mind recent Entergy news. ANO is backsliding. Grand Gulf operations department became chaotic...the NRC pushed them into shutting down for months. The NRC leaked a damming email about enormous troubles in Pilgrim during a ongoing inspection.

Palisades Power Purchase Agreement to End Early; Nuclear Plant to Close in 2018

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News provided by

Entergy Corporation

Dec 08, 2016, 08:07 ET

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COVERT, Mich., Dec. 8, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Entergy Corporation (NYSE: ETR) and Consumers Energy, Michigan's largest utility and the principal subsidiary of CMS Energy (NYSE: CMS), have agreed to an early termination of their power purchase agreement (PPA) for the Palisades Power Plant in Covert Township in 2018, lowering the costs to Consumers' customers by as much as $172 million over four years. The agreement is subject to regulatory approvals. Separately, and assuming regulatory approvals are obtained for the PPA termination, Entergy intends to shut down the Palisades nuclear power plant permanently on Oct. 1, 2018.

"Entergy recognizes the consequences of a Palisades shutdown for our approximately 600 employees who have run the plant safely and reliably, and for the surrounding community, and we will work closely with both to provide support during the transition," said Leo Denault, Entergy's chairman and chief executive officer. "We determined that a shutdown in 2018 is prudent when comparing the transaction to the business risks of continued operation."

The original agreement committed Consumers Energy to purchase nearly all of the power that Palisades generates through April 2022. Under the current plan, and assuming regulatory approval of the request to terminate the PPA in 2018, Palisades will be refueled as scheduled in the spring of 2017 and operate through the end of the fuel cycle, then permanently shut down on Oct. 1, 2018. 

Since first entering into a PPA in 2007, when Entergy purchased Palisades from Consumers Energy, market conditions have changed substantially, and more economic alternatives are now available to provide reliable power to the region. The transaction is expected to result in $344 million in savings, $172 million of which is expected to lower Consumers Energy customers' costs over the early termination period from 2018 to 2022, and $172 million of which Consumers Energy will pay to Entergy for early PPA termination. The early termination payment to Entergy will help assure the plant's transition from operations to decommissioning, maintaining our commitment to meet US Nuclear Regulatory Commission requirements.