Federal regulators have approved a plan to remove a damaged nuclear fuel assembly at the Palisades nuclear plant in Southwest Michigan.
The fuel assembly was damaged when it tipped over after being loaded into the nuclear reactor at Palisades. The plant stopped operating in 2022, but its owner, Holtec International, has been working to make Palisades the first nuclear plant to come back online after decommissioning.
After years of work, staff began loading fuel into the reactor this August, but had to stop after the assembly tipped. Holtec said fuel loading has been paused, but other restart activities have continued.
Palisades already has procedures in place to load and unload fuel assemblies, but Holtec said the tilted assembly had damage on the “upper tile plate,” which complicated the process.
“Visual inspections of the tilted assembly concluded that damage sustained by the fuel assembly prevents retrieval using the grapple on the refueling machine,” the company wrote in a letter to regulators.
In the letter, Holtec requested an amendment to its license to allow it to use a new procedure for removing the damaged assembly and transporting it into a spent fuel pool in another building.
Holtec requested emergency approval of the plan, without a public hearing, because it said a delay could impact the plant’s timeline for restart.
Some nearby residents and nuclear critics wrote to the NRC, urging the commission to slow down the process.
“I urge the NRC not to approve Holtec’s proposed one-time alternative fuel-handling amendment on an expedited basis without a rigorous, independently verified safety review and meaningful public scrutiny,” wrote Kraig Schultz, of Grand Haven, in a letter submitted to the NRC.
“The proposed operation is not routine. It would use a newly fabricated fuel movement device and transfer canister, lift and transport the assembly outside the normal underwater transfer route, and carry the loaded canister through the equipment hatch into the spent fuel pool building.”
But Monday, the NRC issued a letter approving the license changes, allowing Holtec to move forward with its plan.
“The Commission has concluded, based on the considerations discussed above, that: (1) there is reasonable assurance that the health and safety of the public will not be endangered by operation in the proposed manner, (2) there is reasonable assurance that such activities will be conducted in compliance with the Commission’s regulations, and (3) the issuance of the amendment will not be inimical to the common defense and security or to the health and safety of the public,” the commission wrote in a safety review attached to the letter.
The safety analysis included considerations of the possibility of an earthquake during the process, and the possibility that the canister could be dropped during transport.
The NRC is still looking into why the fuel assembly tipped over, and a spokesperson says the commission will continue to monitor the removal of the tipped fuel assembly.
