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This entry is to document the cancelled nuclear power plants planned by Detroit Edison in Avoca Michigan. The plan begins in 1972 with a 2 phase approach. One going online in 1979 and the other in 1981. They were being built by Babcock and Wilcox Co.
The project was postponed in 1974 due to poor earnings by Edison. 500 workers were laid off that were working on the plants in Greenwood and Belle River. The utility asked the public service commission for a rate increase to help offset the losses.
The story picks up again in 1978 when it was decided the project would resume. The projected cost at that time was 3 billion (13 billion in 2022 dollars). Unfortunately on March 28th of 1979, tragedy struck at the Three Mile Island Plant in Middletown PA in which there was a partial meltdown at the core.
Coincidentally, a major motion picture called "The China Syndrome" had come out just 2 weeks prior. The plot of the film involved a near complete meltdown at a fictional nuclear plant in California. It had heavyweights Michael Douglas, Jane Fonda and Jack Lemmon in it and it had a helluva impact. This put a damper on many planned nuclear projects due to safety concerns and opposition from the general public. This resulted in the Greenwood project being put on hold once again.
As Edison was scrambling for financing to finish the project, political and public opposition were growing. Some said the plant wasn't needed. Environmental activists were organizing to stop the project as well. By March 1980, the plant was cancelled by Edison for good. This pleased many groups, not least of which was then attorney general Frank Kelley, who had opposed the build from the start.
A 785 MW plant was constructed on the site in Avoca, one of the few multi-fuel plants in Michigan. It is called Greenwood Energy Center and it uses natural gas, fuel oil, tall oil, and biodiesel. I couldn't find any photos of the stillborn nuclear plant so I included some of the current conventional facility at Avoca. Maybe building nuclear will return given the current energy situation in the US.