Weeks ago, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced that the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant is set to reopen. Since then, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) continues to find alarming levels of equipment damage unexpectedly caused by the extended shutdown of the plant.
     The plant was designed in 1960 and never upgraded to include modern industry-standard safety measures. It was shut down in May 2022 and sold the next month to Holtec International. Since then, the company has received a one and a half billion-dollar loan from the U.S. Department of Energy and a one billion three hundred million dollar grant from the Department of Agriculture, as well as three hundred million-dollar grant from Michigan 2025 budget to restart the plant. If all goes according to plan, Palisades is expected to be the first nuclear power plant in American history to be successfully restarted.
     However, the multiple new safety issues recently discovered by the NRC and analyzed by nuclear experts may delay or even permanently halt the project.
     The NRC’s October report revealed rapid degradation of the plant’s steam generator tubes since its last inspection in 2020.  Stress corrosion cracking now affects up to fourteen hundred steam generator tubes across both units. Some cracks neared ninety percent through-wall depth in just one operating cycle. This undermines the plant’s ability to safely return to service.
     Part of the unexpectedly rapid damage is due to the age of the two steam generators and tubes. They were installed in 1990 using Alloy 600 material, which is now known for its particular susceptibility to stress corrosion cracking. Additionally, the tubes were improperly stored during the two-year shutdown period. This caused seven hundred tubes in one steam generator and two hundred and forty-eight in the other to now require significant repair.
     Alan Blind is a former nuclear plant manager and design engineering manager at Palisades who has spent forty years holding high positions in the nuclear industry. He has urged the NRC since July to rigorously investigate the plant and ensure that it complies with modern safety regulations.
     Blind said, “The Palisades restart is unprecedented. It represents the first time a plant with such thin safety margins and outdated design has been considered for reactivation. Palisades has not been modernized to meet current safety standards…The concern is that stress corrosion cracking can lead to sudden tube rupture under accident conditions, allowing radioactive material to bypass containment structures.”
     The situation at Palisades is certainly not unique. New York’s now-shuttered nuclear plant Indian Point Energy Center was set to reopen in 2000. However, years of closure had generated similar safety issues that ultimately ended the venture.
     Nick Culp is the Holtec Palisades’ senior manager of government affairs and communications. He said in an interview that the company remains optimistic that the plant will be restarted by fall 2025.
     Culp said, “The latest information will not derail [Holtec] from its timetable.” Holtec’s plans to stabilize and plug all damaged tubes, rather than take the costly and time-consuming route of replacing the tubes.