The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will discuss the performance of the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant at a public meeting from 6-8:30 p.m. Wednesday at Beach Haven Event Center, 10420 M-140 in South Haven.
The meeting is in responses to two incidents at the plant near South Haven that led to the downgrading of the plant’s status.
The downgrade is the result of an NRC investigation of an electrical fault caused by personnel at the site in September. The incident resulted in a reactor trip and the loss of half of the control room indicators. Radioactive steam was released into the environment as a result of the fault, though the radiation levels were within acceptable levels.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission classifies plants in one of five grade levels. The lower the ranking, the more inspections it gets. Palisades was moved from the top category to the No. 2 category after faulty maintenance by plant employees caused a water pump shutdown in May.
On Feb. 14, the plant was lowered to the No. 3 category, joining the Perry 1 facility northeast of Cleveland and Susquehanna 1 site in eastern Pennsylvania.
The next lowest level has one facility.
There are no other plants in the fifth column.
The plant at 27780 Blue Star Highway in Covert Township provides about 18 percent of the power for Consumers Energy.
Parts of Allegan County are within a 10-mile-radius Emergency Planning Zone — the prime area where people could be effected by a radiation leak from the plant and evacuations would be mostly likely in an emergency.
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