NRC reviews LAR on Palisades fuel loading incident, as Pioneer SMR application advances

[Marlin]

NRC reviews LAR on Palisades fuel loading incident, as Pioneer SMR application advances

https://www.ans.org/news/2026-10-08/article-8474/nrc-reviews-lar-on-palisades-fuel-loading-incident-as-pioneer-smr-application-advances/

[Core Content]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is reviewing an emergency license amendment request from Holtec after a fuel assembly tilted during loading at the Palisades plant. The offline facility requires a revised safety analysis report to authorize custom recovery tools and an alternate removal path for the stuck component.

This retrieval operation is necessary to resume broader restart activities at the 767-megawatt facility. Simultaneously, developers advanced a phased construction permit application for a two-unit small modular reactor project at the Michigan site. Agency staff made a preliminary determination that the request involves no hazards consideration, allowing public review to proceed.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is reviewing a license amendment request (LAR) Holtec submitted in the aftermath of a fuel loading incident that has paused some of the restart work at the Palisades nuclear power plant in Covert, Mich.

The LAR proposes a revision to Holtec's updated final safety analysis report (UFSAR) on Palisades that would allow workers to use different plant equipment to transport a fuel assembly that is currently tilted inside the reactor vessel. It would also allow the fuel assembly to take a different travel path than what was originally included in the UFSAR.

Read the full article at ans.org:
https://www.ans.org/news/2026-10-08/article-8474/nrc-reviews-lar-on-palisades-fuel-loading-incident-as-pioneer-smr-application-advances/