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Secretary Chris Wright Tours Palisades Nuclear Plant Restart on Fox Business

October 29, 2026 · U.S. Department of Energy · 0:03:34

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Fox Business reported an exclusive look inside the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan with Energy Secretary Chris Wright, saying the plant’s reopening the following month would lower energy prices. The segment said the plant would produce about 800 megawatts once running, affecting roughly 700,000 homes in western Michigan, and described it as the first time the Energy Department had restarted a nuclear plant that had been slated for complete decommissioning, as the broadcast reported.

Wright said the Trump administration was fully committed to launching a nuclear renaissance. Palisades, in southwest Michigan, was shut down four or five years earlier and would return to operation before the end of this year, he said, adding 800 megawatts of affordable, reliable, and safe power to lower costs for Michiganders and increase jobs, according to Wright. He contrasted that with what he said Democrats had done for years to stand in the way of energy production.

The segment said the U.S. government provides billions of dollars in financing for such projects, that President Trump signed an executive order directing the Energy Department to work on them, and that the order also calls for starting construction of 10 new large reactors with complete designs by 2030. The Palisades plant alone would provide about 650 jobs, the broadcast said. In a separate portion of the program, White House deputy press secretary Taylor Rogers discussed the president’s plan to roll back Biden-era methane emission rules for oil and gas companies, saying the change was expected to save consumers $45 billion by unlocking 210 million barrels of oil, as she stated it.

Why it matters

Palisades is the administration’s flagship proof case for restarting shuttered nuclear capacity, and the segment ties it to the broader program of federal financing and new large-reactor construction.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard watch: Wright’s statement that Palisades would return to operation before the end of 2026 with about 800 megawatts, and the stated goal of starting 10 new large reactors by 2030, are dated, checkable claims flagged for the scoreboard editor.

Sources: U.S. Department of Energy, “Secretary Wright Joins Fox Business’ Varney & Co. – October 29, 2026”, 2026-10-29 (official upload, embedded above; published 2026-10-29). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.