http://www.wzzm13.com/money/business/palisades-power-plant-to-close-permanently-in-2018/366042110

If you can chat with someone about Entergy shutting down Vermont Yankee, pay attention.
They are repeating what they did in Vt.

Brand new cooling tower costing Millions? Yep!
Brand new redundant Aux FP project costing millions? Yep!
OK, now that it's been up 5 weeks, tear it down.


Covert and South Haven are going to be cratered.
There is no way to replace the loss of tax revenues, and economic benefits of 1,000+ high paying jobs.

It will be a huge loss for the area.  Most thought that they would at least run until the CMS agreement ran out, but I had come across a UBS (Swiss Bank) article from April concerning Palisades that mapped out almost exactly what would and did happen.  

ETA, yeah, what they are pulling at VY with the outside company coming in and doing an accelerated decommissioning is crazy.  

Crazy how many coal/nuke plants have been closed in the Midwest in the past few years.

While it's sad they're shutting down, I've remembered them always having technical difficulties from time to time, or being one of the industries lower rated plants.

When I was working at DC Cook, there were quite a few engineers that would change jobs back and forth between the two plants, and project work appeared to pay well.

Not any more problems than any other site.  There are a lot of very anti nuke folks in the media here in MI.

Yeah, lots of folks go back and forth between nuke sites, pretty small community, and getting smaller every day.  When I think of how may power plants have been shuttered, I wonder what happens when we have a long, hot summer.  

I was planning on retiring around late 2018 early 2019, but I know lots of people that really like it there and want to finish their working career at that place.  Just goes to show, no one has real job security.

The majority of the supposed "Difficulties" were precautionary shut downs for upgrades and improvements that other facility's didn't take.
The media also hyped every clerical snafu, and made them out to be "Safety" issues, or threats to the public.

For instance, the PA at Palisades is quite steep on the north end and being close to the lake in winter means ice and 50mph winds.
EVERY time somebody took a spill on the ice, it was recorded as a "Safety incident", which the media ran with as a threat.

Dork puts a low speed wheel in the tool post grinder, and a chunk tears up his arm?
Yep! "Nuclear safety incident". Nevermind the machine trailer was a contractors, and the dork was not in the PA.

The recent issue with the SIRW tank leaking, was overhyped as well. The thing has been leaking since 91', patched several times, and written off.
It was never any sort of a threat to safety or the public. Yet the media played on the ignorance and hysterical fears of the populace.

Palisades NEVER had the level of non-compliance issues that DC Cook has had. Heck, the 2 year shut down of Cook was glossed over by the media.
I was at Cook during the Asbestos nightmare. Exposed Asbestos insulation all over the place, visibly flaking off and landing on the floor. First guy that filed a safety concern was in Security, and he got fired a week later. Next guy was a Maint. guy, that filed a CAP on missing sheathing, and HE got axed a little while later. It took one of the ANR Scope janitors going directly to the NRC, before anything got done.

But just let one guy bust a leg falling off of a flatbed truck, and watch the media scream about Palisades.

Entergy is looking at that sweet trust fund $$$, and seeing a tidy profit at the tax payers expense.

2022, the stated date for closing, befire all of this, was the wifes year to retire and roll the pension into an index fund.
27 years out there, and getting stabbed squarely in the back.

Not holding our breath, over being offed a transfer to one of the Gulf plants, and the incentive offer wont likely be honored. Just like at VY.
Just like VY, I doubt new fuel will roll in come spring.

We were talking last night about the spring outage, and all the ongoing projects you mentioned earlier.  

Well, there is the new plant up north in Holland....  

Not to dash your hopes, but a combined cycle gas plant is going to employ less than 30 people once it's started up. That's Operations, Maintenance, Plant Management, day shift, night shift, everyone.

And I expect most of those jobs will be filled by the BPW employees from the soon-to-close coal plant that the new gas plant is replacing.

Yeah, not gonna happen. One or two might get lucky, but that's it. Gas plants run on a couple dozen bodies.
Best shot is Fermi II, Cook, or packing trash for a move south and hope Entergy doesn't follow through with "Getting out of the Game" too soon.

At this point, I seriously doubt the Fuel order has even been made, or will be.  
It makes no sense on a business, or radological standpoint, to have two loads cooling in a currently empty SFP, during a decom.
It's also a disadvantage to C.E. that wants out of the PPA ASAP, and will have to deal with the spent fuel.

Anybody hiring up near your neck of the woods?

Actually, I was joking about the new gas plant in Holland, but everywhere else there are openings.  Holland/Grand Rapids are booming right now.  

Can't wait to build and be settled on our property.  

I've had two previous jobs go to Mexico, so I know what it is like working with good folks that are going to be out of a job soon.  

There has been some articles out there saying the Trump admin might do something to help out the nuclear industry.  May or may not help Palisades, but let's hope it does.

Fermi 2 in Monroe recently got approval for a 30 year license extension, but Fermi 3 build is on hold indefinitely.  Not feasible at this point for many reasons, cheap nat gas prices, political environ, etc.

I recently got out of the nuclear industry.  Many reasons, but was not really worried about a job at Fermi 2.  Was sorta worried about who may own the plant in the future, but employment seemed to be a sure thing.

I now work in a natural gas burning, cyclical plant.  Really boring as compared to Fermi 2, but I went from high stress to zero stress.  Also moved from Monroe area to the thumb, which looks a lot more like the Michigan I grew up in, in the UP.  Also got 30+ acres to play on now, something I could never afford in the Monroe area.

Jealous

The Palisades Nuclear Plant has been iffy for close to twenty years. It's at the end of it's productive life. I would rather see it close than have an accident.

I am not against nuclear energy, a new plant would be a God send.

Try to convince the bank into loaning you $6 billion for a new unit, and tells us how that works out.