Holtec International continues its efforts towards restarting the Palisades nuclear power plant, achieving several key milestones.
Holtec’s Nick Culp tells us the restart remains on track.
“Today, we are still tracking to bring the plant back online by the fourth quarter of this year,” Culp says. “We remain on schedule and on budget with our restart project plans, which is really a testament to the work that the team is doing, as well as their commitment to ensuring that Palisades is brought back online safely and reliably.”
One of the major milestones in the restart journey is securing its full accreditation for its operations training program, which enables the plant to transition into the industry standard six-year training continuum. This is in addition to requalifying 26 former Palisades operators, adding to its 570 full-time employees.
“We also have two classes that are underway to train new operators,” Culp says. “The first of those is set to graduate come early this summer. The second class will be completing shortly after we start. They’ll be done in early 2026. We’ve got a third pipeline class that’s also starting to get underway. We’re keeping that hiring and talent retention pool growing.”
Culp also mentioned inspections are continuing with turbines, as steam generators, reactor vessel internals, and high voltage transformers have already been completed.
In federal developments, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved a waiver request to maintain electrical interconnection service. The interconnection was recently suspended when the plant was shutdown in 2022. Culp says this was crucial, which allows the plant sell power to the grid.
