Palisades Restart Date: Wright Hopes for November, Holtec Sets None

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Oct. 29 he hopes Holtec International's Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan restarts by the end of November, but Holtec's own release that day gave no restart date for the roughly 805 MWe unit.

Wright spoke after touring the plant in Covert Township with Rep. Bill Huizenga and Gregory A. Beard, who heads the Department of Energy's Office of Energy Dominance Financing. "This plant will restart this year, I hope by the end of next month," he said, according to WWMT, adding that it is "very close." He told Michigan Public it would be started "in a few weeks"; Michigan Public reported he said only a few tests and regulatory hurdles remain. The visit comes days after Holtec recovered a tilted fuel assembly, as Voltgrid reported in its project file on the Palisades restart, which found no restart date.

Wright's Palisades Restart Hope Is Not a Schedule

Wright's month is a target set by a cabinet member, not a date from the operator or the regulator. Holtec's Oct. 29 statement lists the completion of fuel loading, required testing, inspections and operational readiness work still ahead, and says the plant will run only when that work is done and all Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) requirements are met. Loading began on Aug. 30 and stopped after an assembly tilted in the core; crews moved it to the spent fuel pool on Oct. 21. Michigan Public reported that fuel assemblies went back into the reactor earlier in October, while Holtec still counts the end of loading as open work.

Even a restart in late November would not mean 805 MW on the grid that week. A Holtec spokesman told Michigan Public that once the NRC clears the restart, the reactor will be brought from low power to full power over several weeks. Wright himself put the output at 800 MW, The National reported; Holtec's figure is about 805 MW.

Why 805 MW Is Not Instant Power

Palisades is a pressurized-water reactor that the NRC licenses for 2,565.4 MWt, the heat its core can make (NRC facility page). Holtec says the restart will restore approximately 805 megawatts of electricity. Heat becomes power only once steam runs the turbines, so the electric figure is what the buyers' contracts rest on.

Power arrives in stages. Holtec lists fuel loading, testing, inspections and readiness work still to finish, then all NRC requirements. A Holtec spokesman told Michigan Public that once the NRC clears the restart, the reactor is taken from low power to full power over several weeks. The 805 MW therefore builds up gradually, ahead of the March 2027 in-service deadline in the Wolverine and Hoosier contracts.

What it means for firm supply

Palisades would be the first decommissioned plant in the US to come back online, WWMT reported, and it sets the pace for the two restarts that hyperscalers back. Constellation's Crane plant for Microsoft, about 835 MW, has NRC staff estimating final decisions by March 4, 2027, and NextEra Energy's 615 MW Duane Arnold plant, under a 25-year Google agreement, by Jan. 29, 2028; both estimates could change. Palisades' power is sold to two rural cooperatives, Wolverine Power Cooperative and Hoosier Energy, under long-term power purchase agreements. Holtec's September filing said those contracts require the site in service by March 2027, or either side may end them. Wright cited an executive order that directs the Energy Department to facilitate 5 GW of power from reactors already built, WWMT reported.

What Comes Next Before the Restart

Holtec owes the NRC a corrective action plan within 30 days of the regulator's Oct. 13 letter, which found a chilled work environment in two departments, supply chain and quality assurance. Hearing requests on the license amendment that allowed the fuel recovery are due Dec. 21. The current operating license runs to 2031. Opponents remain active: Kevin Kamps of Don't Waste Michigan called the restart "radioactive Russian roulette on the Lake Michigan shore." Until Holtec names a date and the reactor reaches power, end-November remains the Energy Secretary's hope.