The Palisades Delay Is a Warning for Every Nuclear Restart Plan

Holtec International's effort to restart the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan, the first attempt in US history to bring a decommissioned reactor back into commercial service, has suffered another setback. Fuel loading began on August 30, 2026, as the plant entered Mode 6, the refueling stage. During loading, a previously used fuel assembly tilted from its upright position after being placed in the reactor vessel, with the fuel-handling grapple already disengaged. Holtec notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which determined that the event did not trigger formal safety reporting requirements, and the NRC said there had been no radiological release.

Holtec has begun a root cause evaluation, is developing equipment to retrieve the assembly and return it to the spent fuel pool, and will submit a license amendment request for the retrieval method. Reports cited by the American Nuclear Society say Holtec is contracted to start supplying power by March 2027. The 800-megawatt pressurized water reactor on the shore of Lake Michigan shut down in May 2022 under its previous owner, Entergy, despite holding a license to operate until March 2031.

Holtec acquired the plant to decommission it, then changed course in late 2023 and sought approvals to restart it. On July 24, 2025, the NRC approved Holtec's request to transition Palisades from decommissioning status back to an operating license, the first such approval in US history. The underlying challenge is that a plant that sat idle after shutdown and was partly prepared for decommissioning needs extensive inspection, repair and replacement. The NRC has handled Palisades under its existing framework, without a dedicated rulebook for restarts, and has generally been praised for working efficiently.

For large buyers, including technology companies seeking 24/7 clean power for data centers, restarts are appealing because they offer firm capacity on a short timescale. For grid operators and utilities, restarts should be treated as valuable but uncertain resources in planning.