Two environmental organizations filed appeals to two U.S. Courts of Appeals in pursuit of continuing its challenge to Holtec International’s Palisade Nuclear Generating Station restart in Michigan.
The coalition of environmental organizations Don’t Waste Michigan and Michigan Safe Energy Future filed its first appeal to the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio on July 22 and another in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, according to the coalition’s Monday press release.
The coalition said this appeal continues to challenge the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s approval of an exemption request made by Holtec. The request made by Holtec aims to undo Entergy’s — Palisades’ previous owner — decision to cease operations and permanently remove fuel for the Palisades’ reactor vessel.
The environmental coalition said that Palisades’ reactor should be closed for good after “51 years of very troubled operations.” In November 2025, the organizations, along with Beyond Nuclear, filed this litigation against Holtec and NRC in the federal district in western Michigan. However, in late June this year, Hala Jarbou, chief judge at the Western Michigan District Court, ruled that the case should be filed in a federal appeals court.
“The very long list of exemptions, waivers, license amendment requests, and other shortcuts on safety that NRC has approved means Holtec’s zombie reactor restart at Palisades risks a Chernobyl- or Fukushima-scale catastrophe there, imperiling the entire Great Lakes, Great Lakes State, and beyond,” Kevin Kamps, executive director of Don’t Waste Michigan, said in the release.
The group said it has refiled this litigation in response to Jarbou’s ruling. The second appeal made by the organization in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia was filed on Aug. 14. This appeal comes after NRC commissioners’ June 15 memorandum and order to deny the organizations’ petition to intervene and request for a hearing in the Palisades’ restart license amendment process.
The two organizations, along with other organizations such as Beyond Nuclear, have opposed Holtec and NRC’s efforts to revive the Palisades reactor for several years. The groups filed several contentions to NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board seeking to intervene to prohibit Holtec from restarting the Palisades nuclear plant.
“Holtec is already more than two years behind its own schedule for restarting Palisades, and we hope a federal court injunction will make that already long delay permanent,” Michael Keegan, co-chair of Don’t Waste Michigan, said in the release.