WATERVLIET VFW POST 1137… Its annual Needy Family Christmas Drawing was held recently. Pictured is $250 raffle winner Robert Williams (left) of Benton Harbor along with VFW Commander Corky Openneer. Other raffle winners were Ryan Price and Claude Hobson. The VFW sells raffle tickets to generate funds to buy groceries for the needy families.

Palisades Power Plant returns to service after successful refueling, comprehensive inspections and other maintenance

Palisades Power Plant in Covert Township returned to service December 28, 2018, following the completion of its successful scheduled refueling and maintenance outage. Control room personnel returned the plant to operation, sending electricity to the grid after a planned shutdown that began October 28. This was the 26th refueling in the plant’s history. The investment reinforces Entergy’s commitment to continued safe and reliable plant operations through Palisades’ retirement in 2022. “We are committed to continuing to provide safe, secure and reliable electricity to area families and businesses through the plant’s permanent closure in 2022,” said Charlie Arnone, Site Vice President and Entergy’s top official at Palisades. “Entergy continues to make the investments needed for the plant, as evidenced by the $87 million of work performed during this outage.” During the scheduled refueling and maintenance outage, trained professionals replaced about one-third of the fuel in the reactor, inspected and upgraded hundreds of pipes, pumps, electrical components and other equipment. “Around 1,900 professionals, including nearly 1,300 specialist contractors, performed hundreds of activities that can only occur while the plant is offline,” added Arnone. “Hundreds of thousands of person-hours of work were performed over the last several weeks to prepare Palisades for safe and continuous operation over the next three and a half years. Thanks to the pride, professionalism and hard work of our team, Palisades is recognized as a top performer within the nuclear power industry and ranks in the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s highest safety category.” This was the second-to-last refueling outage at Palisades before the plant’s permanent retirement in the spring of 2022. On August 1, 2018, Entergy announced that it had agreed to sell the subsidiaries that own Palisades and the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Mass., to a subsidiary of U.S.-based Holtec International for purposes of accelerated decommissioning after those plants’ respective shutdowns and reactor defuelings. For Palisades, that transaction would not occur until after the spring of 2022 and would include the sale of the decommissioned Big Rock Point Plant near Charlevoix. The sales include the transfer of the licenses, spent fuel, and Nuclear Decommissioning Trusts.

The transactions are subject to conditions to closing, including federal approval of the license transfers.

John & Judy Megna celebrate 50th wedding anniversary

The children of John Megna and Judith Halliburton happily announce their parent’s 50th wedding anniversary. John and Judy were married on December 28, 1968 at Salem Lutheran Church in Coloma, Michigan. They have been blessed with two children, Michele Germann and Therasa Poschke, and four grandchildren, Alex Poschke, Kayla Sink, Jonathan Sink and Ethan Blanchard.