Fuel loading into the reactor vessel has begun at the Palisades nuclear power station in Covert, Michigan, a step that moves the shuttered plant toward a return to commercial power generation. NucNet reported the milestone on 31 August 2026, describing it as the point where the site shifts from readiness work to reactor startup preparation.
Palisades is an 800 MW pressurised water reactor that stopped generating in May 2022 and entered decommissioning. Holtec International acquired the site in June 2022 and then reversed course, pursuing a restart rather than dismantlement. In August 2025 the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission returned the facility to operational status, the first time a decommissioning US power reactor had been moved back into that category.
The restart has drawn substantial federal financing. The project has received $1.52bn in federal loan support tied to returning the unit to the grid. Holtec said in July 2026 that the last of the major refurbishment projects had closed out and that the site had shifted to routine maintenance, testing, inspection and operational readiness work.
A successful return would make Palisades the first US commercial reactor to come back after entering decommissioning, and it would add firm baseload capacity to the Michigan grid. The plant sits on Lake Michigan in Van Buren County and previously supplied power under contract to regional cooperatives. Holtec has said the restart also preserves several hundred site jobs that would have ended under a dismantlement schedule.
Holtec has not published a firm date for the reactor to reach criticality or synchronise with the grid. The company previously pushed its target from late 2025 into 2026 as regulatory reviews and steam generator work continued.
Source: NucNet - https://www.nucnet.org/news/fuel-loading-process-begins-as-palisades-nears-return-to-power-generation-8-1-2026