Norton Rose Fulbright represents US DOE’s Loan Programs Office in US$1.5 billion financing

Norton Rose Fulbright represented the United States Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office on a US$1.5 billion guaranteed loan provided by the Federal Financing Bank for the repowering of Holtec International’s Palisades nuclear power facility in Covert, Michigan. Financed under the Inflation Reduction Act’s Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment program, the project will generate clean energy for consumption across the Midwest.

This is the first recommissioning of a shut-down nuclear power plant in the United States, which will strengthen America’s nuclear energy sector and advance core climate and domestic energy goals. The project is anticipated to avoid 4.47 million tons of CO2 emissions per year for a total of 111 million tons of CO2 emissions during the projected 25 years of operations—an amount roughly equivalent to the annual emissions of removing more than 970,000 gasoline-powered cars from the road.

The Palisades facility, which was brought into service in 1973 and closed in May 2022, is an 800-megawatt plant projected to provide power until at least 2051 once brought back online. The Biden administration estimates it will create or keep up to 600 local jobs and Holtec International has already signed an agreement with 15 trade unions.

Norton Rose Fulbright’s deal team was led by Marissa Leigh Alcala together with core team members Justin Goushas, Evan Allen (Washington, DC), Dylan Gera (Los Angeles) and Ana Namaki (New York).

Additional support was provided by Mike Stimson (Austin), John F. Young, Mitchell King (Chicago), Andrew Buisson, Tom Milner (London), Tom Hall, Christy Rivera, Andrew Skroback, Lena Lee (New York), Kim Caine, Hilary Lefko, Debra Ann Palmer, Rachel Rosenfeld and Laela Shallal (Washington, DC).