NEW YORK: The US Department of Energy (DOE) said on Wednesday it would loan Holtec International $1.52 billion to help restart an 800MW nuclear power plant in Michigan that was shut down in 2022, potentially making it the first nuclear plant to be recommissioned in the United States.

The conditional loan by the Energy Department’s loan program office was authorized through passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022. The loan is dependent on Holtec meeting several technical, legal, environmental, and financial conditions, according to the DOE loan office.

The Biden administration has said that nuclear energy will play a key role in decarbonizing the country’s power grid by 2035 and the entire economy by 2050.

The re-started Palisades plant would avoid 4.47 million tonnes of CO2 emissions annually for a total of 111 million tonnes of CO2 emissions during its projected 25 years of operation.

Florida-based Holtec said the plant would employ more than 600 workers, with about 45% of the workforce at the site coming from union labor once it’s restarted.

The company also plans to build what will be its first two small modular reactor (SMR) units at the site, which will not be part of the project that is eligible for the loan.

NuScale’s SMR technology is the only one to have received design certification from the US nuclear power regulator last year.