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Holtec Pauses Refueling at Palisades Nuclear Power Plant, Delays Restart
Holtec says engineers are working to retrieve the assembly, and the NRC found no radiation release or worker impact.
- On August 30, 2026, workers at the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in Covert Township, Michigan, halted fuel loading after a large nuclear fuel assembly tipped during installation, pausing the historic restart of the nation's first decommissioned reactor.
- Holtec International did not publicly disclose the incident for weeks, mentioning it only in a September 21 progress report, despite the plant's significance as a pioneering restart effort.
- Edwin Lyman, a nuclear safety director with the Union of Concerned Scientists, called the delay a "PR blunder" and warned that recovering the irradiated assembly requires "very special precautions."
- Holtec must secure a license amendment from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to retrieve the assembly; the agency stated the tipped component posed no public danger and did not meet reporting requirements.
- These incidents illustrate how rushing to meet arbitrary timelines is counterproductive, potentially causing delays as the government applies this restart template to other shuttered plants including the Crane Clean Energy Center.
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Nuclear Plant Restarts Show What Government Can Do With a Clear Mandate
On Aug. 30, workers at the Palisades Nuclear Plant in Covert Township, Michigan, began loading 204 fuel assemblies into a reactor vessel that had sat empty since the plant shut down in 2022—the first time in U.S. history that a commercial reactor that had entered decommissioning began reloading fuel. Holtec International Chairman and CEO Dr. […]
Coverage Details
Total News Sources13
Leaning Left1Leaning Right1Center3Last UpdatedBias Distribution60% Center
Bias Distribution
- 60% of the sources are Center
60% Center
L 20%
C 60%
R 20%
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