After more than 50 years of operation, the Palisades nuclear power plant was taken offline for the final time on May 20. The station was scheduled to be permanently shut down on May 31, but plant operators “made the conservative decision to shut down the plant early due to the performance of a control rod drive seal,” Entergy said.
The shutdown completes a respectable operating history for the 800-MW facility (Figure 1). In fact, the plant’s most-recent run set a site and world record for a plant of its kind, continuously generating electricity for 577 days since its last refueling. Palisades remains ranked in the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s highest safety category, and Entergy claims the station is regarded by its peers as one of the top performers in the industry.
