Holtec begins loading fuel into the Palisades reactor

Holtec Nuclear Corporation has begun loading nuclear fuel into the reactor vessel at its Palisades plant in Covert Township, Michigan, the company announced on August 31, 2026. The core takes 204 fuel assemblies, a mix of new fuel and partially used assemblies from the plant's most recent operating cycles, and is designed, per the release, to support Palisades' 805-megawatt electric output. Holtec says the milestone advances Palisades toward becoming the first commercial US nuclear plant to return to service after entering decommissioning.

Plant staff started the load on the morning of Sunday, August 30, according to the American Nuclear Society's Nuclear Newswire. Loading fuel places Palisades in Mode 6, the refueling stage under the plant's technical specifications. Once the core is full, the release says, the plant moves through a series of required testing, inspections, and startup activities as systems are declared fit for operation. The release sets no date for commercial operation; Nuclear Newswire notes that Holtec founder and CEO Kris Singh, in an interview earlier in the summer of 2026, said he expects Palisades to restart in 2026, ahead of its contract to supply power by March 2027.

The core load caps more than two years of refurbishment. Work Holtec lists in the release includes reinforcement of tubes in the plant's two steam generators, removal of accumulated corrosive species from the steam generation space, replacement of the control rod drive mechanism nozzles, chemical decontamination and passivation of the primary system, and reactor vessel inspections. World Nuclear News reported in April 2026 that the passivation campaign brought the primary system to operating temperature and pressure for the first time since the plant shut down.

Palisades, a single-unit pressurized water reactor, stopped operating in May 2022 and was defueled that June, though its operating license runs to March 2031, per World Nuclear News. The license passed from Entergy Nuclear Operations to Holtec Decommissioning International and Holtec Palisades for decommissioning; in late 2023, Holtec began seeking the approvals needed to return the plant to operational status for the remainder of the license term.

The money behind the reversal is public and long-term. The release credits financial support from the State of Michigan, a loan from the US Department of Energy, and power purchase agreements with Wolverine Power Cooperative and Hoosier Energy. The DOE backing is a loan guarantee of up to $1.52 billion; the department announced its fifth disbursement under it, $83.2 million, on August 7, 2025, describing Palisades as "America's first restart of a commercial nuclear reactor in decommissioning," subject to Nuclear Regulatory Commission approvals.

Holtec's plans for the site run past the restart: the release says the company currently expects the first two units of its SMR-300 small modular reactor to be deployed at the Holtec-owned Palisades site. The nearer-term sequence is the one the release names, finishing the core load and testing plant systems. The company that took over Palisades' license to decommission the plant now has fuel going into its reactor vessel; Chief Nuclear Officer Fadi Diya said in the release that the team remains focused on "disciplined execution of the remaining work and returning Palisades to safe and reliable operation."