The owner of a shut-down nuclear power plant in southwest Michigan could try to bring it back online by the end of the year.
To make that happen, the company, Holtec International, will need federal regulators to approve a license that would allow it to change the status of the Palisades nuclear plant from decommissioning to operational. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says it plans to decide what to do with that request this week.
Nick Culp is a senior manager of governmental affairs and communications at Holtec, which bought the plant as it entered the decommissioning phase.
“There’s a difference in oversight that comes with that, but also importantly, we can then receive new fuel for the site. We’d also be able to start turning some plant systems and equipment back over into an operational setting,” Culp said.
With the decision, Holtec would still need to get through more steps to actually get its status updated. The company predicts it could meet those new requirements by August 25.
Aside from that, however, Holtec would need the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to sign off on three requests from the company to change its license. One of those involves the use of steam generator tube sleeving.
Culp compared that to putting a tube within a tube to add an extra layer of safety. He said Holtec started the sleeve repairs early in the process, with the knowledge of the NRC.
That concerns Beyond Nuclear, an environmental coalition opposing the restart of the plant, which had stopped running in 2022. Beyond Nuclear is working to block the sleeving work using the federal regulatory process.
Kevin Kamps, a radioactive waste specialist with the group, said doing the repairs early could give Holtec an advantage before the NRC.
“The thinking being that, well, if it’s a problem, then the NRC will call them on it and not allow them to proceed to actually restart. Well, the experience of decades shows that the NRC, once the work is done, the facts are on the ground, they’re not going to reverse the company, no matter how extreme those risks are,” Kamps said.
Kamps called the sleeving “Band-Aid fixes” to get around replacing the actual steam generators themselves, something that could get expensive. He said Beyond Nuclear plans to take the matter to court if the coalition doesn’t succeed at stopping NRC approval for the sleeving.
The NRC said it has been following “established rules,” and that it expects to finish reviewing the request by September 30. The agency confirmed it has “been observing and independently assessing Holtec’s activities related to steam generator repairs.”
Last week, Beyond Nuclear received a copy of a routine restart inspection report from NRC regulators that referenced the sleeving repairs. Monday morning, Beyond Nuclear issued a scathing press release decrying the NRC’s knowledge that the repairs were going on while the licensing process was still playing out.
“We’re taking part in the NRC’s licensing proceeding in good faith. But the NRC’s good faith is very much in question. And certainly, Holtec’s as well,” Kamps said.
But, like the NRC, Culp said Holtec has been doing everything by the book and reiterated anything would still need the agency to sign off before the plant becomes operational again.
“To suggest that we’re outside of that I think is a very misguided interpretation of how the regulatory process works,” Culp said.
If Holtec succeeds, Palisades would be the first nuclear plant in the country to start back up after ending operations for decommissioning. It’s received hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal and state governments to support the restart efforts.
