Holtec’s Palisades Nuclear Plant is inching closer to potential restart as the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved six licensing actions Thursday for the Michigan plant.
NRC staff has officially approved Holtec’s request to change Palisades facility license from a decommissioning status back to an operating license. NRC has also found no significant environmental impact.
“The NRC’s approval to transition Palisades back to an operating license represents an unprecedented milestone in U.S. nuclear energy,” Holtec International president Kelly Trice said in Holtec’s Thursday press release. “Our mission remains clear: to restart Palisades safely, securely, reliably, and in support of America’s energy future – while supporting local jobs and economic growth for decades to come.”
NRC staff previously signified to Holtec in a July 17 notification of significant licensing action, that it would green light key issues for plant restart on Thursday.
Holtec’s Palisades restart still needs to meet additional requirements, such as three more license amendment requests, before being fully approved for operation, according to a NRC spokesperson. The three requests are under review and on track to be completed by this fall, he added.
NRC also continues to conduct independent inspections to make sure that safety systems and programs meet NRC’s requirements for operating reactors, said a NRC spokesperson.
Prior to Holtec’s restart efforts, Palisades ceased operations under previous owner Entergy in May 2022 and entered decommissioning.
Palisades is an 800-megawatt plant located in Covert Township, Mich. After being shut down in 2022, Holtec bought the plant from Entergy with the intention of decommissioning it but changed its original plans.
Along with the issuance of the power operations technical specifications license amendment, the staff will approve a license transfer application, exemption request and three license amendments supporting restart.
The three license amendments would revise the administrative controls section of the Palisades technical specifications, revise the site emergency plan and the plant’s main steam line break analysis, respectively.
Palisades will not be eligible to load fuel prior to Aug. 25, the staff said.
These licensing actions are in response to Holtec’s July 1 notification of readiness for transition to power operations licensing basis. The company said it would be ready for a power operations licensing basis by Aug. 25.
The Palisades restart continues to pick up momentum as Holtec’s CEO Kris Singh recently visited the Michigan plant and outlined continuous maintenance being completed in preparation for its reauthorization of operations.
Additionally, the Department of Energy (DOE) issued its fourth loan disbursement of DOE’s $1.52 billion loan guarantee to the Palisades restart for nearly $100 million.
Environmental organizations have continuously condemned and challenged the potential restart. Beyond Nuclear and various environmental groups have lodged appeals challenging Holtec’s request for license amendments and NRC’s issuance of environmental assessments for the plant.
Many of the environmental groups’ attempts to thwart the Palisades restart were to no avail. However, the groups intend to continue to challenge the plant’s restart.
“Although NRC Staff and Holtec International would like everyone to believe the Palisades atomic reactor’s unprecedented restart is a done deal, our environmental coalition begs to differ,” Beyond Nuclear’s Kevin Kamps said in a Thursday press release. “We will continue to resist Holtec’s Palisades zombie reactor restart scheme, enabled by a complicit and colluding NRC, at every opportunity. There is too much at stake to do otherwise.”
