The restart/finish wave, with a wobble: Palisades fuel-load pause, Crane cleared (Sep 24–29)
From the Energy digest for Oct 2, 2026
Sources ANS/Palisades WNN/Holtec SMR site work WNN/IPO ANS/NRC roundup WNN/Crane WNN/Hamaoka
- Palisades (Covert, Mich.; the first U.S. restart plant) — fuel loading, which began Aug 30 in Mode 6, was paused by an incident involving a fuel assembly (204-assembly core; plant is also now grid-connected at the switchyard). No resumption date captured. Holtec's other Palisades news: an NRC exemption allows early site work for two SMR units at the Palisades Energy Center ahead of a Limited Work Authorisation (Sep 16). Also Holtec's planned IPO is postponed on market conditions, with the CEO citing AI-sector jitters (Sep 17) — the AI boom backing the nuclear boom is now visible as nuclear's market-risk vector. Ledgered.
- Crane Clean Energy Center (ex–Three Mile Island Unit 1, Pa.) — NRC + DOE's Office of Energy Dominance Financing issued the environmental assessment and FONSI for reauthorising power operations (Sep 28; part of a multi-item NRC roundup Sep 29 that also made Indiana an Agreement State and proposed an EO 14300-related rulemaking).
- Other side of the tide: Japan's Chubu withdrew restart-review applications for Hamaoka units (Sep 14), while Taiwan's regulator completed its review of the Maanshan restart plan (Sep 28). Ontario's Pickering refurb proceeds with >CAD3B (~USD2.1B) in contracts (Sep 23) ahead of OPG's own framing as economic sovereignty (Sep 24).
What's genuinely new: Palisades' pause is the first operational incident reported in the U.S. restart wave — the story to watch is resumption timing and the cause's taxonomy (assemblies vs. procedure).