NEWPORT, Mich. — The future of DTE Energy’s Fermi 2 nuclear plant will be discussed in Washington on Thursday afternoon by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards, an independent body of nuclear experts that is a key NRC advisory group.

The ACRS has a lengthy talk about the plant’s application for a 20-year license extension on its agenda for that afternoon at the NRC’s national headquarters in Rockville, Md.

Located along the western Lake Erie shoreline, 30 miles from Toledo in northern Monroe County, Fermi 2 is licensed to operate through March 20, 2025. The ACRS review is one of the final steps in the approval of a 20-year extension, which would allow the plant to operate into 2045.

First Published September 6, 2016, 4:00 a.m.