The Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week said it established an Atomic Safety Licensing Board to hear a local man’s arguments against granting regulatory relief for the restart of the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Michigan.
In Monday a Federal Register filing, NRC said it last week established the board to preside over a hearing sought by Alan Blind, a longtime nuclear-power hand and a former Entergy employee who, according to his LinkedIn profile, was the engineering director at Palisades for nearly seven years, from 2006 to 2013.
The board had not set any hearing dates as of Tuesday. NRC usually issues notices of hearings at least 15 days in advance of the proceedings.
Blind on Sept. 9 asked the NRC to conduct a hearing about four regulatory actions that Palisades owner Holtec International asked the commission to take so the Jupiter, Fla.-based company can restart the shuttered plant, something Holtec hopes to do by September 2025.
In the petition, Blind asked that the commission “suspend Holtec’s ongoing system restoration activities and license amendment reviews until the appropriate regulations are evaluated, approved, and aligned with NRC-approved design and quality assurance standards.”
In August, Blind spoke out against Holtec’s proposed timeline for the restart in a Reuters story, “US nuclear plant unfit for quick resurrection, former lead engineer says.” In July, Blind and journalist Roger Rapoport petitioned the NRC to make a new rule specifically for restarting shuttered plants such as Palisades. NRC last week opened public comments on the rulemaking petition.
In July, during a congressional hearing, NRC Chair Christopher Hanson said the commission might finish evaluating Holtec’s requests for regulatory relief at Palisades by May.
Palisades shut down in 2022. Holtec acquired the facility to decommission it but reversed course as local, state and finally federal stakeholders and government officials pushed to return the plant to operations.
In August, DOE formalized a $1.5 billion loan to Holtec to help restart the plant by providing cash for a host of major infrastructure improvements, including a new steam generator that, at an estimated cost of more than $500 million, is the single-largest item on Holtec’s pre-restart shopping list.
