power | time traveler series | by brian day

You may have heard that the owners of Pallisades Nuclear Plant plan to restart 70s-era facility in 2025, but did you hear that they also plan to fire up two smaller reactors on the site?

Holtec International, the company that owns and wants to restart the closed Palisades nuclear plant, is already working on preliminary site plans for a pair of 300-megawatt SMRs (Small Modular Reactors) previously announced for the industrial site along Lake Michigan in Covert Township.

…Advanced nuclear technology expert Staffan Qvist, Swedish engineer and scientist, said SMRs come with “inherent safety” measures using the basic physics of the plant’s design and engineering. He said SMRs will generate smaller loads of electricity than classic nuclear plants but will cost much less to build. Qvist said the Holtec SMR-300 is a primarily water-cooled design, and he likened it to a shrunken down version of a conventional pressurized water reactor (but)… Nuclear critic Kevin Kamps, of watchdog group Beyond Nuclear, said trying to restart the old nuclear plant and co-locate new modular units was setting up the site for “Fukushima-like domino-effect meltdowns.”

You can read more in mLive, but I think the thing that may be of most interest is WHY these plants are being restarted in the first place. Scientific American has a great look at how Artificial Intelligence (AI) uses a ridiculous amount of power & is on track to use a whole lot more.

I featured this photo of the Fermi plant in southeast Michigan from Brian’s amazing series called The Time Traveller way back in 2011. Check out his latest work on Instagram & for sure dig into some of his other photo series on his website.