Above, Kelly Trice, President of Holtec International, is directing the restart of the Palisades Nuclear Plant in South Haven, Michigan, as well as the hoped for construction of 2 small modular reactors on the site.
Above, Trice discusses the progress of the restart, including some of the funding sources.
Further below, Trice summarize the case for the SMRs.
In the meantime, the tariff policies of the current administration are emerging as a significant barrier to timely and economic completion of both projects.
President Donald Trump’s trade policies have disrupted every sector of the economy, including energy. A nuclear power plant project in Michigan could be the latest victim of the president’s tariffs.
In 2024, the Palisades Nuclear Plant, which was closed in 2022, received a loan guarantee of $1.52 billion from the Energy Department. With an additional $300 million grant from the state of Michigan, Holtec Palisades (which owns the power plant) will restart the plant with two 300 megawatt small modular reactors developed by Hyundai Engineering and Construction.* If brought back online, it would be the first nuclear power plant in the U.S. to restart after being scheduled for decommissioning. Even though it was a favored Biden administration project, the restart has received support from Trump’s Energy Department, which approved a $57 million loan disbursement in March.
Still, the government’s subsidies aren’t shielding the Palisades plant from the impacts of Trump’s protectionist agenda. Bloomberg recently reported that the project’s South Korean construction partner is reconsidering its procurement plans to account for tariffs.
US tariffs could drive up the costs for a planned nuclear power project in Michigan, according to the South Korean firm building the plant, threatening higher electricity prices for consumers.
If tariffs increase expenses for the builder, those costs will theoretically be passed on to the owner, Holtec International, said Chanho Ahn, director of the new energy division at Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. And if the owner bears the higher cost, they may ultimately need to set higher electricity prices, he said in an interview on Thursday in Seoul.
The South Korean company agreed to build two reactors at the Palisades power plant for Holtec, which will own the project. The reactors are slated to come online by 2030.
The looming prospect of tariffs has Hyundai reevaluating its procurement plans, including looking at suppliers in the US instead of Korea, said Ahn. “Tariffs will have an influence on the total price,” he added.
Holtec is part of a wave of companies developing small modular reactors, which are expected to be faster and cheaper to build than conventional, larger plants. Hyundai has a deal to be Holtec’s exclusive builder of its SMR-300 reactors, with two planned for Palisades.
A bigger concern for Holtec than tariffs is that tax credits remain in place for the Michigan reactors and future nuclear plants, said Patrick O’Brien, a company spokesperson.
He also cited the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, which is currently the focus of scrutiny from the Trump administration as part of a government-wide effort to cut spending. Keeping the office open “allows the SMR-300 to move forward with certainty and help unleash American energy dominance,” he added.
Recent report on weather forecasting:
https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/02/weather/nws-forecasting-layoffs-trump
With the assessment “we’re better equipped to deal with the future, we can’t be an ostrich and put our head in the sand and let it go.”
https://www.dw.com/en/scientists-aim-to-compile-us-climate-report-after-trump-cuts/a-72422510