Incident pauses Palisades fuel loading; plant connected to switchyard

An incident involving a fuel assembly has paused the fuel loading process at the Palisades power plant in Covert, Mich., operator Holtec has acknowledged.

Fuel loading began on August 30 as Palisades entered Mode 6, the refueling stage of the restart. The reactor core consists of 204 fuel assemblies that include new fuel and partially used fuel from the plant's most recent operating cycles.

During the fuel-loading activities, one previously used fuel assembly tilted from its upright position after it had been placed in the vessel. According to Holtec, the fuel-handling machine grapple was disengaged at this point. Staff notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission but determined that the incident did not trigger safety reporting requirements under NRC regulations.

A root cause evaluation was initiated to determine the cause of the incident and identify corrective actions, according to Holtec, and engineers are developing equipment to retrieve the fuel assembly, with plans to return it to the spent fuel pool. Palisades will submit a license amendment request to the NRC related to the retrieval operation.

Holtec spokesman Patrick O'Brien did not provide additional details to Nuclear News on the incident and its impact on the restart. Previous reports have said Holtec is contracted to start supplying power by March 2027.

Additional updates: Restart activities that are independent of fuel loading are continuing, Holtec said. However, progression to the cold shutdown phase (Mode 5) and other operating modes is subject to resolving the fuel assembly incident, completing required testing and modifications, and receiving applicable NRC approvals. Holtec expects the plant to transition to the cold shutdown phase once fuel loading is completed and the reactor vessel is reassembled.

"Teams are continuing work to establish the plant conditions necessary to support progression through subsequent operating modes, including completing required modifications and testing to verify that plant cooling, electrical, protection, and other systems are ready to perform as designed," Holtec said.

Palisades hit a milestone on September 11 when workers reconnected it to the 345-kV switchyard. Restoration work was conducted in coordination with transmission system operator ITC.

"The switchyard will ultimately provide the path for electricity generated by Palisades to reach the transmission grid," according Holtec. "Final commissioning and testing activities are continuing to return full switchyard functionality to service."