A lawsuit seeking to stop the restart of the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant has been filed in federal court.
Don’t Waste Michigan’s Michael Keegan tells us his group has teamed up with Beyond Nuclear and Michigan Safe Energy Future to first seek a preliminary injunction and then a permanent injunction against the project. They’re arguing the restart is a violation of the Atomic Energy Act due to how the Palisades license is being handled.
“Holtec has filed for an exemption to be able to change their terminated license to an operating license, and this is a violation of the Atomic Energy Act,” Keegan said. “The NRC cannot go ahead and allow them to do so.”
Keegan says a process like this has never been followed, and his group believes it’s illegal.
“That is what we’re pushing, that they have engaged in a process where they’re basically cheating, not following the law, and trying to relabel what is a terminated operating license and reactivate it. There’s not a process for them to do so, and they have not promulgated rules to do so.”
This is the first federal court action Palisades opponents have pursued after several attempts at intervention with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Keegan says the suit was filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan on Friday. A panel of judges will have to decide if the preliminary injunction is granted, which he believes would likely take until January.
