Big Rock Point - the little plant that could

Big Rock Point Plant, operated by Consumers Power Company (now Consumers Energy), sat at the northern tip of the lower peninsula of Michigan near the town of Charlevoix. It was named literally for a "big rock" (Kitchiossining in the Chippewa language) left by a retreating glacier on the shore of Lake Michigan.  It was the fifth power reactor reactor in the U.S. and the first in Michigan.

It was a small plant, too, only about 67 MWe capacity, an early General Electric boiling water reactor design. You see the artist's conception in the post card above and the plant under construction below.

The plant operated for 34 years, from 1963 until 1997, when for economic reasons it was shut down.

At the time of its shutdown it was the oldest operating plant in the U.S. The American Nuclear Society named it a Nuclear Historic Landmark in recognition of its role as an early nuclear generating plant and for its production of cobalt-60 used in medical applications.

After plant closure in 1997, the decommissioning process began and the plant was dismantled and the site restored with only a remaining dry storage facility for spent fuel remaining on the site by 2006. The licensee produced an interesting brochure depicting the history of the plant and the decommissioning process.

For such a small plant, there certainly were a lot of postcards produced depicting it, as well as other promotional material like matchbooks and buttons!