ROCKVILLE, Md. —A three-judge Nuclear Regulatory Commission panel heard legal arguments Wednesday on some license amendment requests that Holtec Decommissioning International and Holtec Palisades will need to be approved by the government regulator for its historic restart effort of the Palisades nuclear plant in southwest Michigan to continue.
The opposition was led by two types of petitioners, one representing anti-nuclear activist groups and another representing several residents who live in close proximity to the plant, which is along Lake Michigan and about an hour’s drive west of Kalamazoo.
Experts have said the outcome of the case has huge ramifications for the nuclear industry as a whole.
Palisades is the first nuclear plant in which an effort is under way to bring it back into service after it entered its decommissioning phase. The Palisades plant did that in May of 2022, but the U.S. Department of Energy later committed itself to making $1.5 billion available to see if there is sufficient engineering to restart the mothballed plant after it has sat idle for so long.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has made the Palisades restart a priority to help her state achieve the carbon-reducing agenda of her MI Healthy Climate Plan, which seeks to greatly reduce Michigan’s contribution to global climate change.
Groups that oppose the restart include Beyond Nuclear, Don’t Waste Michigan, Michigan Safe Energy Future, Nuclear Energy Information Service of Chicago, and Three Mile Island Alert of Pennsylvania.
The coalition was represented at Wednesday’s event by Toledo-based attorney Terry Lodge and Wally Taylor of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
“We contend this is a cobbled together, ad hoc patchwork licensing procedure, and we contend it is not lawful under the Atomic Energy Act,” Mr. Lodge said at the end of the event, a prehearing that lasted nearly three hours.
The prehearing was originally scheduled to be heard in person by NRC Atomic Safety and Licensing Board judges Emily Krause, Gary Arnold, and Arielle Miller at the NRC’s headquarters in Rockville, Md., just outside Washington. It was rescheduled for the same day as an online event because of the winter storm that hit the Midwest and East Coast.
Judge Krause, the ASLB chair, did not indicate when a decision would be made.
She said a transcript of the event is expected to be posted on the NRC’s website next week.
Holtec attorney Stan Blanton said the company believes the myriad licensing issues raised by all petitioners are without merit.
“Each of these contentions should be dismissed,” he said.
Michael Spencer, who led an NRC legal team’s presentation of agency staff findings, agreed.
“The staff concludes none of the contentions are admissible,” he said.
Mr. Spencer also noted that the plant’s operating license, which was renewed on Jan. 17, 2007, remains in effect despite the closure, which former owner Entergy stated in 2022 was done because of economics.
“Entergy’s decision to close down the plant was voluntary and did not extinguish the license,” he said.
Palisades is licensed to operate through March 24, 2031, according to NRC records.
Issues debated at the event were of a technical nature, pertaining mostly to NRC rules for nuclear plants.
Alan Blind, a retired nuclear industry executive who at one time served as engineering director at Palisades, represented the group of residents who live near the plant.
Palisades began operating March 24, 1971. Except for periodic refueling and maintenance outages, it remained in service for more than 50 years.
Mr. Blind said he believes the plant should not allowed to go back into service until there is a new Final Safety Analysis Report written for it, a key document tailored to guide operations at each nuclear plant.
The FSAR that Palisades was operating under was written in 1969, he said.
“I just don’t want the NRC staff to feel they’re compelled to use that original design basis,” Mr. Blind said.
Petitioners said they have some anxiety over how the NRC is handling the situation, because the agency has no playbook for such a restart.
“The fundamental problem remains: No regulations exist for a plant returning from decommissioning to operation, leaving 50 years of nuclear lessons ignored and loopholes exploited. That is our concern,” Mr. Blind told the panel.
Holtec said recently it remains on target for restarting Palisades in late 2025.
The NRC reminded the company at a recent meeting, though, that the pace of its review will not be influenced by Holtec’s announced schedule.
First Published February 13, 2025, 4:43 p.m.
