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PRESS RELEASE: “NUCLEAR AMATEUR HOUR” RESULTS IN TRIFECTA OF PROBLEMS AT CONTROVERSIAL NUCLEAR PLANT RESTART

Three serious issues have emerged as part of the fast-tracked and never-before conducted restart of the previously shuttered Palisades Nuclear Power Station in Covert, MI.
The restart is being attempted by HOLTEC International — a company that previously specialized in nuclear waste issues, and has never before run a nuclear power plant.  It has selected as its first attempt a reactor that was “permanently” shut for three years — something never before done in the U.S. nuclear power industry.
In cooperation with the seemingly co-opted federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and running on a fast-track schedule, the HOLTEC trifecta consists of:
  • botching the reloading of previously irradiated nuclear fuel, resulting in a fuel bundle being “tipped” out of position, requiring its removal, in a one-off, open-air procedure never before conducted;
  • 9 of 15 reactor operator candidates not passing their required operator license exam
  • NRC ignoring concerns from independent reactor engineers and former executives regarding the seriousness and hazard of the proposed fuel removal, as well as largely preventing public input on the situation
A serious accident at the Palisades NPP jeopardizes Lake Michigan, the drinking water supply for 16 million people, including Chicago.
These events also come within a month of HOLTEC withdrawing a $900 million financial public offering, reasons unstated.
Contact those listed below for details.
–David Kraft, director, NEIS–

Updated News from Don’t Waste Michigan

For Immediate Release 3:00 pm Thursday, October 15, 2026

Contacts: Michael J. Keegan, Don’t Waste Michigan, Monroe, MI, [email protected], text (734) 770-1441;
Kevin Kamps, Don’t Waste Michigan, Kalamazoo, MI, [email protected], (269) 217-6326;
(Interviews with Arnie Gundersen, expert witness, and Terry J. Lodge attorney can be arranged through contacts above)
COMPOUNDED PUBLIC PERILS AT PALISADES
Fuel Load Approved / Worker Big Chill / Operator Exam Failures
COVERT TOWNSHIP, VAN BUREN COUNTY, MICHIGAN and ROCKVILLE, MARYLAND, Thursday, October 15, 2026–
Late afternoon Wednesday the NRC announced Approval of Holtec’s License Amendment Request regarding the precariously stuck spent nuclear fuel at the bottom of the Palisades reactor.  The Approval allows the Holtec to proceed with retrieval of the spent nuclear fuel currently wedged in the reactor.  ‘The Peril at Palisades’ is Holtec’s proposed fuel assembly retrieval operation of highly radioactive fuel by suspending out of water, into the plant atmosphere for up to 133 hours. This will be a highly radioactive undertaking, at risk of overheating, if the 133 hour deadline for re-submersion under water in the indoor wet storage pool is missed.  NRC Approves License Amendment Request to Load posted here:
https://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/news-releases/2026/nrc-approves-palisades-license-amendment-request  Peculiarly the NRC last point on Approval found at page 4 states: “This license amendment is effective as of the date of issuance and shall be implemented within 10 days of the date of issuance.”
In a superficial and truncated Public Notice which expired last Thursday (10/8) Twenty plus Comments were made.
Only the Comments of Alan Blind were accepted for review and then dismissed.  All others were out of scope.
Twenty Commentors submitted and all were ignored.   The NRC characterized those Commentors as such: “The remaining comments were out of scope, such as requesting more time to comment, stated that this should not be done as an emergency amendment, feels the NRC is rushing the review, a lack of public awareness, general disagreement with the application, or Palisades starting up in general.”   The Public Notice was purposefully posted in tiny print, to News Media, not usual practice.  The standard Public Notice is posting at Federal Register or into NRC ADAMS docket.  NRC found a loop hole, and provided a token posting of 44 hours.
On the same day that NRC Approves Holtec Amendment #283, the NRC found that a Chilled Work Environment exists in Holtec’s Supply Chain and Quality Assurance departments at the Palisades plant, posted here: https://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/news-releases/2026/nrc-issues-chilling-effect-letter-holtec
The NRC’s Approval comes knowing that on August 5, 2026 nine Senior Reactor Operator and six Reactor
Operator applicants were administered license examinations. The results of the examinations were finalized on August 31, 2026. Six applicants passed all sections of their respective examinations. Nine applicants were issued Preliminary Results letters. Three were issued senior operator licenses and three were issued operator licenses.  In other words nine out of fifteen failed, posted here: https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2628/ML26286A267.pdf (Palisades – NRC Initial License Examination Report)
“In the last four weeks, Palisades lost control and tipped a nuclear fuel bundle and couldn’t get it out. Nine out of 15 licensed reactor operators failed their exam. And more than half of the people in their quality assurance and procurement departments feel they will be fired by management if they bring concerns forward.  But ironically on this day, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission just gave them permission to begin loading fuel again!” stated nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen.
“Holtec’s unprecedented restart of the Palisades zombie reactor will risk a Chornobyl- or Fukushima-scale catastrophe, a hundred yards from the shoreline of the Great Lakes, drinking water supply for more than 40 million people in eight U.S. states, two Canadian provinces, and a large number of Indigenous Nations,” stated Kevin Kamps, executive director for Don’t Waste Michigan.
NRC Issues Chilling Effect Letter to Holtec
On Tuesday the NRC Office of Public Affairs made this statement:  “The NRC found during a recent inspection that a Chilled Work Environment exists in Holtec’s Supply Chain and Quality Assurance departments at the Palisades plant. The October 13 finding is limited to those two departments and does not involve any violations or significant plant safety issues. The NRC expects Holtec to share the findings with employees, take immediate steps to reassure staff, conduct an independent evaluation, submit a corrective action plan within 30 days, and implement corrective actions. The NRC will review the plan and oversee Holtec’s response. The agency has determined that existing measures adequately protect plant safety, and based on current information, the findings are not expected to affect the planned restart of the Palisades facility. The agency will continue to verify through inspection and oversight that safety requirements are met and these issues are effectively addressed.”  Posted here: https://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/news-releases/2026/nrc-issues-chilling-effect-letter-holtec
https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2628/ML26286A257.pdf
“Chilling effects letters are rare. Very rare.” stated nuclear engineer David Lochbaum.
Arnie Gundersen said “Organizationally, the quality assurance department reports directly to the plant manager. If quality assurance is feeling chilled, clearly the plant manager must be involved in pressuring that department.”
“That the people in QA in particular are being silenced is of extreme concern to all of us.  The NRC’s criticism of the corporate culture at Palisades is a very serious allegation and I suspect silencing internal critics figures into the excessive speed Holtec attaches to the restart.” stated Terry J. Lodge, attorney for Intervenors, Lodge warns  “They’re moving too fast and bad things become more possible when there are a lot of unknowns about what will hold and what might not withstand a return of Palisades to power generation.”
Arnie Gundersen has 55 years executive level as a nuclear engineer.  Gundersen serves as Expert for Palisades Intervenors who are actively engaged at the U.S. Sixth Circuit, and the U.S. District of Columbia.  Documents for those legal Interventions available on request.
Please see previous Public Perils at Palisades – Fuel Load Update circulated earlier yesterday, and posted up at: <https://www.dontwastemichigan.org/HOLTEC.html> Comments and Documents also posted.
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Opinion: Repealing the nuclear moratorium would be a costly mistake for Illinois

LEGISLATURE CONFRONTS THE NUCLEAR PANDORA’S BOX  (Original title)

13 October 2025

According to the legend, an overly curious but ill-informed Pandora opened a container she was warned not to, in the process unleashing all the ills of the world upon mankind.  In fairness and her defense, one has to admit she was not informed about the contents of the container.

That seems to be the principal difference between Pandora and the Governor and Illinois Legislature today. In the Fall Session it is expected that the Legislature will be voting on the potential repeal of the 1987 nuclear power moratorium, which if it occurs, would take the lid off of construction of more nuclear reactors.

Unlike Pandora, Illinois officials are well aware of the ills of nuclear power, which are many and well known: huge construction costs and overruns; lengthy and often delayed construction times; attraction for official corruption (think Illinois, Ohio and South Carolina); continued generation of high-level radioactive wastes (HLRW) with no place for permanent disposal; difficulty operating in a market system without some form of eventual bailout; and “black-swan” but always present potential for severe nuclear accident.  It only takes one bad day at the nuclear office to turn Illinois into the Belarus of the United States.

As bad as these nuclear attributes are, the ones that the Legislature has consistently refused to address, coupled with newer issues created by the Trump Administration are equally concerning, and argue forcefully to keep Illinois’ nuclear moratorium in place:

  • Adding even more HLRW to the 11,000+ metric tons current reactors have already created (and which add ~250 tons/year), all with no place for permanent disposal;
  • Providing inadequate to non-existent “just-transitions” safeguards for reactor communities and workers to protect local tax bases, economies, and jobs from the negative economic hit that eventual reactor closure will create (as already occurred in Zion, IL);
  • Inadequately advancing preparations to operate reactors safely in an increasingly climate disrupted world, where future required water availability may be uncertain and volatile, facility-threatening weather events more severe, and conditions for power interruptions increasing in new and unexpected ways;
  • Ignoring the environmental justice implications of expanding nuclear power, from uranium mining on Indigenous lands, to siting an environmentally responsible and legally required HLRW permanent disposal facility.

While this list of neglected, unsolved nuclear problems is daunting enough, the last thing to leave today’s nuclear-Pandora’s Box is not “hope.”  It is a series of Trump Administration executive orders, issued in May, that deprioritize the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s mission to protect the public; reduce NRC staff; call for weakening radiation standards; and require a DOGE sign-off on new reactor designs – all while quadrupling the number of U.S. reactors by 2050.  Former NRC Chairman Dr. Gregory Jaczko remarked, “President Trump’s executive order shows he is committed to further lawlessness, more nuclear accidents, and less nuclear safety.”

The 1987 Moratorium was initially enacted to protect Illinois from radioactive waste abuse.  Its presence has at least helped minimize the numerous other problems with nuclear power.  Moratorium repeal only guarantees their continuation and worsening.

Just as in the original Pandora legend, once these nuclear ills are legislatively loosed upon the world, there will be no means to put them back in the box.

Now is clearly NOT the time to be considering new reactors.

The Nuclear Moratorium repeal should be rejected.

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