Update: NRC Commissioner Gregory Jaczko says Entergy the owner of the Palisades plant has taken steps to improve safety at the plant, but says "there is a need to improve on fundamentals." Read Kalamazoo Gazette coverage here. 

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko is scheduled to visit the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant near South Haven Friday. The NRC has downgraded the plant after four separate events over a year and a half period. (read Mlive coverage here and here) Kevin Kamps, Radioactive Waste Specialist with Beyond Nuclear, says his group wants to see the Palisades Plant shut down. Kamps says the enhanced inspection program is not enough. He says the most recent incident in September was a serious risk to safety.

Kamps says the visit is significant because the chairman of the NRC usually doesn’t come to a plant unless there is a serious problem. Jaczko is making the visit despite announcing his resignation on Monday.

Kamps says many improvements are needed at Palisades but he says there is no way to improve the plant's “embrittled reactor pressure vessel." Kamps says that’s why the reactor needs to be “shut down for safety’s sake.”

(Note: WMUK contacted Palisades about an interview, a spokesman referred requests to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. No one from the NRC could be reached on Thursday to schedule an interview for Friday morning)