Holtec Ordered to Fix Palisades Safety Culture After Exam Failures

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has directed Holtec International to address safety culture issues at the Palisades nuclear power plant in Michigan. The order comes as the company works to bring the shuttered reactor back online, a project central to the federal push to expand domestic nuclear capacity.

The regulator identified a "chilled work environment" at the site. According to the NRC, staff members have become reluctant to raise safety concerns due to a fear of retaliation. This finding emerged from an inspection conducted in July, which was triggered by questions about safety awareness following a prior incident.

That earlier incident occurred last year when a contractor fell into the reactor cavity. The worker swallowed water and required off-site medical care. Radiation protection staff decontaminated the individual, though an incident report noted that 300 counts per minute of radiation were still detected in their hair.

A second operational problem arose in August when a bundle of nuclear fuel rods tilted during refueling. This event delayed the anticipated restart, which was expected to be the first revival of a closed reactor in the United States. Compounding these issues, nine of the 15 reactor operators at Palisades failed their initial licensing examinations administered in July and August. Only six individuals successfully obtained operator licenses.

Holtec has no prior history of operating a nuclear power plant. The company has received approximately $2.2 billion in government support for the Palisades effort, a project frequently cited as a symbol of a US nuclear resurgence. Critics argue that financial and political pressures to meet surging energy demand, particularly from artificial intelligence, could increase the likelihood of accidents at such facilities.

The Palisades project is part of a wider trend in the energy sector. Owners of two other plants scheduled for decommissioning, Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania and Duane Arnold in Iowa, have announced their own restart plans following the commencement of work at Palisades.

Holtec must now implement measures to correct the safety climate at the plant. The NRC’s directive requires the company to resolve the issues identified during its inspection, addressing both the operator performance gaps and the internal communication barriers that contributed to the current status of the restart.