EXCLUSIVE: Palisades Nuclear Plant Manager speaks to ABC57 after final NRC approvals

COVERT TOWNSHIP, Mich-- The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) gave the final green light to Holtec International to restart the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant. Palisades is the first plant in the country to get these approvals.

ABC57 spoke exclusively with Jeff Borah, general manager of plant operations at the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant.

"It's really, I think, the beginning of the nuclear renaissance, and we're at the forefront of that."

Borah said the plant will be running again by the end of the year.

"It does make it more real, right? It means we really are going to restart this plant," he said.

The NRC's approvals mean the plant's license has been transferred to Palisades Energy, and it can start receiving nuclear fuel in the next couple of months.

"When we're back online and stable, it's just over 600 full-time jobs," Borah said.

However, more than 2,000 workers are helping with the rebuild, he said.

"We are doing several upgrades, but it's really just around obsolescence, to address obsolescence issues," he said, "and then really to improve the reliability, so we're going to run reliably for the next few decades."

Borah showed ABC57's Annie Kate the spent fuel canisters that will store the radioactive nuclear waste.

"After three cycles of operations, a cycle is about a year and a half, we do take about a third of the fuel out of our reactor, and we store it in dry fuel storage cannisters," he said.

Borah said that until there is a central repository for such waste in the country, nuclear plants must keep it on-site. But it's not a lot; he said all the waste from Palisades' 50-year history would only take up the 5-yard line of a football field.

The restart will put 800 megawatts of power back on the grid, enough electricity to power 800-thousand homes. There are purchase agreements with Wolverine Power Cooperative in Michigan and Hoosier Energy in Indiana, according to Borah.

The restart comes as the country's power demand is greater than ever before.

"The demand is definitely growing," he said. "So nuclear is a key part of the strategy for this country in being able to supply that power. It is a clean form of energy, it's very reliable and safe, and it's hard to scale up any other form of energy."

Holtec partnered with Hyundai in what they called "Mission 2030" to build the country's first small modular reactors at Palisades. That effort will get underway after the plant's restart.

While Borah says this is the most public and governmental support he's seen for nuclear in his 25-year career, there are still those opposed. Groups like "Beyond Nuclear" are protesting this restart every step of the way.