NRC says no environmental impact from Palisades restart
The US nuclear regulator has issued its final environmental assessment and finding of no significant impacts for Holtec's request to return the Palisades Nuclear Plant to an operational status.
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The single-unit pressurised water reactor on the shores of Lake Michigan permanently ceased operations on 20 May 2022, and its licence was transferred from previous operator Entergy Nuclear Operations to Holtec Decommissioning International, LLC (HDI) and Holtec Palisades, LLC, for decommissioning. Holtec later announced it would pursue a restart of the shuttered unit, and in late 2023 began the process to obtain the licensing approvals needed to return the plant to operational status for the remainder of its licensing term.
To restart the plant, Holtec would need to gain approval from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to restore the licensing basis of the plant to an operational status; return plant components to a status that supports safe operation; and make any upgrades necessary to meet the proposed operational licensing basis. As well as reviewing the regulatory and licensing documents for the plant, the NRC will also inspect new and restored components necessary to operate safely, and continue ongoing oversight to ensure sufficiency of all plant systems and programmes. The regulator has set up a dedicated Palisades Nuclear Plant Restart Panel to oversee this effort.
The NRC said its environmental review covered the scope of Holtec's licensing requests, considering "new and significant information" developed since its October 2006 review for Palisade's previous licence renewal. The regulator's staff has concluded that there are no significant environmental impacts from restarting Palisades. The NRC, as the lead federal agency, conducted an environmental review with the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office as a cooperating agency: the project to restart Palisades receiving federal support through a USD1.5 billion loan guarantee from the Department of Energy.
At the time it was taken out of service, Palisades was licensed to operate until 2031. Holtec notified the NRC last year that it intends to apply for a second, or subsequent, licence renewal for the plant during the first quarter of 2026. This would extend the plant's operating period by a further 20 years, to 2051.
In an update issued in early April, Holtec said work at Palisades remains on schedule and on budget, targeting a restart in the fourth quarter of this year.
Holtec has also launched a project to build a plant based on its SMR-300 small modular reactor at the Palisades site, with a target of 2030 for first commercial operation.
