The Palisades nuclear power plant. (Photo: Holtec)
Palisades nuclear power plant has received its first fuel shipment, a key step ahead of its highly anticipated restart by the end of the year.
Located in Covert Township, Mich., Palisades will be the first U.S. nuclear facility to restart after being slated for decommissioning. The Crane Clean Energy Center, formerly Three Mile Island-1, is the next decommissioned nuclear reactor to be resurrected, with an expected restart by 2027.
The fuel for Palisades was fabricated domestically and was placed in secure storage within the plant’s spent fuel pool building until it can be loaded into the reactor core, plant owner Holtec International said in a statement.
Separately, the plant received and installed a second fully refurbished primary coolant pump motor, which recirculates the reactor coolant.
Backstory: Palisades’ 777-MWe pressurized water reactor entered commercial operation in 1971 and ran for more than five decades until then-owner Entergy shut it down in 2022, as Nuclear Newswire previously reported. Entergy sold Palisades to Holtec International in 2022 for decommissioning. Holtec is also responsible for the decommissioning of three other retired plants: Oyster Creek in New Jersey, Pilgrim in Massachusetts, and Indian Point in New York.
But with greater demand for clean energy and backing from Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Holtec reversed course and sought approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2024 to restart the plant. Among other funding, the Department of Energy granted a $1.5 billion loan guarantee last August to help the plant restart. The NRC then approved Holtec’s request to transition the plant’s status from decommissioning back to an operating license in July of this year.
