Environmental groups opposing the planned restart of Michigan’s Palisades nuclear power plant have taken their challenges to two federal appeals courts, escalating a years-long dispute over the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s authorization process for returning the previously closed facility to operation.
Don’t Waste Michigan and Michigan Safe Energy Future are pursuing cases before the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The litigation challenges regulatory decisions connected with Holtec International’s effort to restart Palisades, located along Lake Michigan in Covert Township in southwest Michigan.
Federal Appeals Target NRC Decisions
The Sixth Circuit appeal, filed July 22, challenges the NRC’s approval of an exemption allowing changes to the plant’s regulatory status following its permanent shutdown.
Entergy, Palisades’ previous owner, shut the reactor on May 20, 2022. It subsequently certified the permanent cessation of operations and permanent removal of nuclear fuel from the reactor vessel. Holtec later pursued regulatory approvals needed to return the facility to power generation.
The environmental groups initially brought litigation in federal district court in western Michigan. Chief Judge Hala Y. Jarbou ruled in June that the dispute belonged at the federal appeals court level, prompting the groups to pursue the Sixth Circuit case.
A separate appeal filed August 14 with the D.C. Circuit challenges the NRC Commissioners’ rejection of safety and environmental contentions raised by the groups. Those objections had previously been considered and rejected by the NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board.
Opponents Raise Safety Concerns
Palisades began operating in the early 1970s and remained in service for more than five decades before its shutdown. Opponents have focused particularly on the condition of its steam generators and other aging components.
“All the king’s horses, and all the king’s men, invite cataclysm attempting to run Palisades again,” said Michael Keegan, co-chair of Don’t Waste Michigan in Monroe. “Holtec is already more than two years behind its own schedule for restarting Palisades, and we hope a federal court injunction will make that already long delay permanent,” Keegan added.
The coalition also argues that the number of regulatory exemptions and license amendments associated with the restart raises broader questions about the NRC’s approach to previously closed reactors.
“The very long list of exemptions, waivers, license amendment requests, and other shortcuts on safety that NRC has approved means Holtec’s zombie reactor restart at Palisades risks a Chornobyl- or Fukushima-scale catastrophe there, imperiling the entire Great Lakes, Great Lakes State, and beyond,” said Kevin Kamps, executive director of Don’t Waste Michigan in Kalamazoo. “Palisades’ restart — just like Holtec’s proposed, so-called ‘Small Modular Reactor’ new builds there — is unneeded, insanely expensive for the public, and extremely risky for health, safety, security, and the environment. We look to the federal judiciary to stop such potentially catastrophic risk-taking, by a rogue executive branch agency, dead in its tracks, before it’s too late,” Kamps added.
Steam Generator Repairs Become Key Issue
The condition of Palisades’ steam generator tubes has become one of the central technical issues in the dispute. The coalition argues that degradation raises concerns about operating the aging facility again and has challenged the NRC’s approval of tube sleeving as part of the repair program.
Nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen, who has served as an expert witness for the coalition, also questioned the restart effort.
” ‘Crossing your fingers’ and ‘Palisades restart’ don’t belong in the same thought process, but yet here we are,” said nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen, who has served as the environmental coalition’s expert witness in this NRC proceeding, and a previous one a dozen years ago.
Gundersen has criticized Holtec’s handling of the plant during the shutdown period. The coalition says maintenance practices contributed to additional deterioration of steam generator tubes, while the NRC has allowed Holtec to pursue repairs intended to support a return to service.
“Now Holtec has performed mere ‘Band-Aid fixes’ — degraded tube sleeving — with NRC’s approval, despite our coalition’s legal challenges, and the extreme risks,” Kamps said.
Palisades Case Could Have Wider Nuclear Industry Implications
The litigation comes as other U.S. utilities explore restarting nuclear plants that had previously ceased operations, potentially making the Palisades case significant for the broader nuclear power industry.
Constellation Energy is pursuing plans involving the Christopher M. Crane Clean Energy Center in Pennsylvania, formerly known as the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant. NextEra is also seeking to restart the Duane Arnold Energy Center near Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Environmental organizations have intervened in proceedings involving those facilities as well. Attorneys representing the Palisades opponents are also involved in opposition to the proposed Duane Arnold restart.
The federal appeals involving Palisades could therefore help determine how existing nuclear regulations are applied when owners seek to return previously shut reactors to commercial operation. For Holtec, regulators and nuclear industry stakeholders, the cases will be closely watched as efforts to extend or restore U.S. nuclear generating capacity gain increased attention.
