Holtec International says the restart of the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant remains on track, although the reactivation date has been moved back to early 2026, slightly missing an often-cited restart goal of late 2025.
The company’s Nick Culp tells us they’ve set the new target as a great deal of work continues taking place at the site in Covert and the holidays arrive. Culp says the reason for the minor delay is simply the number of tasks that must be completed.
“It really comes down to project schedule and sequencing to make sure that certain projects are completed in a certain order,” Culp said. “And if something happens to take a little bit more time to make sure it’s done correctly, there’s no substandard when it comes to this kind of work.”
Culp says the restart remains at the front end of the original window.
Meanwhile, Congressman Bill Huizenga, a proponent of the Palisades restart, tells us his office is in regular contact with Holtec. He says the company has been on an aggressive timeline, and it doesn’t surprise him there would be a slight delay.
“You want to make sure we’re doing this safely, right? They want to make sure that they’re doing this safely,” Huizenga said. “This is the first time it’s been done here in the United States where we’ve taken a completely cold offline, no fuel rods, no activity happening in the reactor and brought it back to life.”
Culp says the Palisades project is still on track and under budget, with work continuing as planned. He adds that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission process is going well, with major approvals already secured and the plant authorized to return to power operations. Early next year, crews will begin fuel movements, reactor reloading, system checks, and gradual power increases.
Culp says the focus is on doing the job right.
