Living near the Palisades nuclear plant

The Palisades nuclear plant sits on the Lake Michigan shore in Covert Township, about five miles south of South Haven. It has an unusual story: after running for roughly fifty years, it shut down in 2022 — and it’s now being brought back into service. That makes Palisades the first closed nuclear plant in the country ever to be restarted, a process being watched closely by federal regulators. If you live in or near Covert or South Haven, your home may fall inside the plant’s emergency planning zone.

That zone is a circle about 10 miles across, centered on the plant, and it reaches into parts of three counties — Van Buren, Berrien, and Allegan. Living inside it doesn’t mean anything is wrong; a working nuclear plant has one as a matter of course, and it just means your area comes with a ready-made safety plan. A serious problem at the plant is very unlikely. But because it’s possible, the counties keep a plan so people know what to do.

A few things are worth knowing if you’re inside the zone. There are outdoor warning sirens spread across the 10 miles; they’re tested at noon on the second Saturday of each month, so a siren then is just a test. A real alert is a steady siren lasting several minutes — if you hear that, go indoors and tune to a local radio or TV station for instructions. The state also offers free potassium-iodide (KI) pills to people who live within 10 miles; you pick them up ahead of time with a voucher, because they’re handed out before an emergency, not during one.

If anything ever happened, you’d be told whether to stay indoors or leave, and which roads to use — and most of the time, people are moved as a precaution well before there’s any real danger.

For the free KI program see michigan.gov/ki, and your county’s emergency management office can show you your exact zone and how to sign up for alerts.