Holtec International this week asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to dismiss an antinuclear group’s attempt to block regulatory action needed to restart the Palisades Nuclear Plant.
Holtec on Monday asked the commission secretary to deny a Dec. 5 petition by three antinuclear groups who want a hearing about the company’s Sept. 28 request for an exemption to NRC regulations that, among other things, forbid refueling a reactor that has been legally scheduled for decommissioning.
Holtec bought Palisades in 2022 to decommission it but is now trying to switch the plant back on by 2025.
Though the NRC acknowledges the exemption Holtec wants would be essentially unprecedented in commission history, and while federal regulations allow environmental groups to contest proposed changes at NRC-licensed facilities, federal law “does not grant a hearing right on exemption requests” Holtec International wrote in its Monday motion.
In their request for a hearing, the groups Beyond Nuclear, Don’t Waste Michigan, and Michigan Safe Energy Future said that according to commission precedent, “exemptions are to be granted sparingly and only in cases of undue hardship,” and that no such circumstances exist at Palisades.
The antinuclear groups also said that federal law does not explicitly allow the exemption Holtec seeks. Holtec, in its Sept. 28 request for an exemption, said the law does not forbid the exemption, but the antis said that a lack of prohibition does not equate to permission.
Last, the groups oppose Holtec’s argument that the company should be allowed to restart Palisades without performing further environmental reviews of the plant site and surrounding areas. At least one NRC staffer has been skeptical that the company should get an exemption.
Holtec in June got a $150 million appropriation from Michigan to aid with the Palisades restart. The company still needs a loan of at least $1 billion from the Department of Energy’s Loan Program Office, which as of Tuesday had not publicly approved or denied the loan. Holtec has said it hopes DOE will approve the loan by Dec. 31.
Holtec at one point was seeking $2 billion from DOE to help restart Palisades, according to documents that Beyond Nuclear obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request. By far the most expensive item in the proposed Holtec restart is a new steam generator, according to those documents, which Beyond Nuclear distributed in October to media.