Tasks Delay Restart of Palisades Nuclear Site Until Possibly Late March | Columbus Ohio Dump Trucks

Crews are pushing to achieve the much-touted restart of the Palisades nuclear power plant in western Michigan by the end of March, but owner and developer Holtec International has pushed back the schedule to possibly late March, with officials citing needed component upgrades.

The 800-MW plant’s announced recommissioning, which was set for December as first in the U.S., has been propelled by the Trump administration to expand operating domestic nuclear power to boost American energy needs generated by data center development associated with the huge demand for artificial intelligence. Palisades was completed in 1971 and has been decommissioned since 2022.

The firm had initially predicted it would restart last October but confirmed in press statements that completion of needed columbus oh dump truck work and other unspecified project actions are causing the latest delay. "We are planning for a Palisades restart in early 2026, following completion of ongoing project activities,” said Holtec spokesperson Nick Culp.

Plant owner Holtec also seeks to add two small modular nuclear reactors at the Michigan site, each about 340 MW.
Rendering courtesy of Holtec International 

Holtec has not released the estimated restart cost, but the U.S. Energy Dept. in October issued to the firm the sixth loan disbursement of a $1.52-billion agency loan granted in 2024. The project also has received about $1.3 billion from the U.S. Agriculture Dept. and $300 million from the state. There are about 600 full-time jobs that have been created or retained as of December, Holtec said. Last year. the plant received 68 fuel assemblies now in secure storage until the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission allows them to be loaded in the reactor core.

According to nuclear trade press reports, major columbus oh dump truck equipment restoration columbus oh dump truck work is underway. Reassembly of the main turbine generator is progressing after more than a year of inspection, testing and maintenance work. The plant, which also recently received and installed the second of two fully refurbished primary coolant pump motors, now is undergoing more inspections, maintenance and system reassemblies under commission oversight.

Steam Generators Are Focus Area

Steam generator upgrades are a critical area of columbus oh dump truck work after an inspection last year found that 1,400 cooling tubes were cracked and needed repair, according to a local report. Holtec is performing "sleeving" and plugging on the cracked tubes as an alternative to a full generator replacement, and "deep cleaning" of secondary systems. Workers are also reassembling large turbine and generator components, following detailed inspections, and taking steps to decontaminate the primary coolant system to reduce radiation hazards for workers.

Ongoing inspections are verifying integrity of the reactor vessel and hundreds of piping welds to ensure they are not significantly degraded. Inspectors also have verified plant readiness to withstand heavy rainfall and external flooding, specifically for the service water system and turbine building. Also to be verified as meeting operating standards are cybersecurity and fire protection systems, while licensed operators undergo requalification training and emergency response exercises with state and local agencies.

To manage the high volume of final restart tasks, the commission authorized a 60-day exemption starting Jan. 6, allowing the plant to use less restrictive work-hour controls to finish restart activities.

Unexpected worker safety issues already have happened, including a contractor technician conducting radiological assessments who fell into a pool of radioactive water above the reactor last October, said Holtec. The recommissioning effort is supported by more than 1,000 contractors, vendors and suppliers, according to the firm.

“The plant will return once all restart activities are complete to support long-term safe, reliable operation," says Culp.

At the time it was taken out of service, Palisades was licensed to operate until 2031. Holtec notified the commission last year that it intends to seek a subsequent plant license renewal in the next three months, to extend its operating period to 2051.

Holtec Seeks Small Reactor OK at Plant Site

In January, Holtec said it also submitted its first major licensing application to the commission to approve construction start and environmental review of its two-unit SMR-300 pressurized water small modular reactor to be built adjacent to the Palisades plant. Each has about 340 MW of capacity. The application specifically seeks a limited columbus oh dump truck work authorization to begin preliminary construction activities on site such as soil compaction, backfilling and installing foundations.

The new SMRs would create an additional 300 full-time positions and support more than 2,000 jobs during peak construction, according to Culp. Holtec has requested the commission to approve its application by Dec. 31, 2026. The Energy Dept. is providing $400 million in funding for the small reactors, set to finish in the early 2030s.

Longtime opponent group coalition Beyond Nuclear criticizes the latest delay in restarting the Palisades plant and believes it won't be the last. "For several long years now, Holtec International repeatedly stated, with false confidence, that its unprecedented* restart of the Palisades plant, said Kevin Kamps, its radioactive waste specialist and spokesperson. "The plant has outdated, deteriorating machinery and columbus oh dump truck equipment that Holtec and the [commission] have not accounted for, including steam generator tubes." The group added that the two planned SMR-300s “would exacerbate safety risks."

But proponents see restart of older decommissioned reactors such as Palisades, Unit 1 of the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania and the Duane Arnold power station in Iowa as the only near-term option to add more nuclear power to the grid, with new builds at least half a decade or more away.  

The Pennsylvania plant, now owned by Constellation, recently accelerated its operating target to 2027 from 2028 due to fast-tracked grid link approvals from regional grid operator, PJM Interconnection. The Energy Dept. closed a $1-billion loan last November to help finance the estimated $1.6-billion project, with the first advance expected in the next three months, it said. Constellation signed a 20-year nuclear power purchase agreement with Meta in June 2025 for 1.1 GW and Microsoft has a 20-year power deal for its data centers signed in 2024.

Work is underway to restore the turbine, generator, main power transformer, and cooling systems, the firm said. As of late 2025, the project was nearly 80% staffed. Federal approval for security, safety and environmental issues is underway, a primary focus for 2026, the project team added.

The 615-MW Duane Arnold nuclear plant in Iowa, shut down in 2020, is being restarted by NextEra Energy with a goal to be online by early 2029. It has an October-announced 25-year power supply deal with Google. The project still requires a number of approvals from the commission and state agencies,

First Japan Nuclear Restart Since Fukushima Delayed

Meanwhile, a technical glitch pushed back partial restart of the world's largest nuclear reactor, in Japan, according to its owner-operator on Jan. 19, as reported by Japan Times and others one before day it was set to go online.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), has not confirmed a new date to start plant operations at the seven-reactor, 8.2-GW Kashiwazaki-Kariiwa plant 135 miles northwest of Tokyo, according to local reports on Jan. 20—saying it needed further time to check a nuclear fission control rod safety alarm error that occurred on Jan. 17. The plant went offline in 2011 after a giant earthquake and tsunami caused a meltdown of three reactors at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant, also owned by the utility company.

Planned Jan. 20 restart of a 1.3-GW unit at Japan's Kashiwazaki-Kanwa nuclear power plant, offline since the 2011 earthquake-caused meltdown of its Fukushima plant, now is delayed by fission rod alarm error.
Photo courtesy of TEPCO

One of the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa reactors, a 1.3-GW unit, had been set to start up on Jan. 20.

Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, which TEPCO said has cleared nuclear safety regulator checks, would be the first nuclear plant restarted since the disaster—but the action is still a divisive issue in Japan, reports say. The power Charlotte NC dump trucks company "only mentions a possible delay. But that's not enough," said Takeshi Sakagami, president of the Citizens' Nuclear Regulatory Watchdog Group. "A full investigation is needed, and if a major flaw is confirmed, the reactor should be permanently shut down."

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