Holtec announced on Oct. 21, 2026 that workers at the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan had retrieved the fuel assembly that tipped inside the reactor core at the end of August. The lift followed an approval by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Oct. 13 that allowed the plant to use custom equipment and procedures for the job. The assembly is now out of the core and in the spent fuel pool.
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That sequence turns an open regulatory question into a finished operation. For about seven weeks one assembly stood at an angle among the others in a reactor that has not generated power since 2022, and fuel loading for the restart could not go on around it. The remaining questions are why it tipped and how much the episode changes the restart schedule.
The NRC amendment that cleared the lift
The agency’s news release, dated Oct. 14, says the NRC approved a license amendment requested by Palisades Energy, the Holtec-led operator, to use custom equipment and procedures to move a tilted nuclear fuel assembly from the reactor core to the spent fuel pool. The approval itself came on Oct. 13. The NRC said its review confirmed that the activity could be carried out safely and in line with its regulatory requirements. The release names no official, quotes no one and says nothing about when the move would happen.
A document in the NRC’s public record fills in the engineering, though from an opponent’s angle. It is an email forwarded within the agency on Oct. 8 that carries a public comment by Kraig Schultz of Michigan Safe Energy Future, who urged the NRC to withhold expedited approval. His comment describes the request as a one-time fuel-handling amendment for a damaged assembly designated DD41, which tilted after the refueling machine released it during core loading and damaged its upper tie plate. It lists Holtec submissions dated Sept. 30 and Oct. 2 and describes a newly fabricated fuel movement device and transfer canister.
How the assembly was lifted out
According to Interesting Engineering, the assembly tilted about 30 degrees on Aug. 30, 2026, with its bottom still seated in core position H-1 and its top leaning against the core shroud. The NRC said at the time that no radiation was released and no worker was injured. Holtec built a custom fuel movement device and a transfer canister in roughly two weeks, and crews used them to lift the assembly out of the reactor, seal it in the canister and carry it to the spent fuel pool, where it is now stored.
The need for special tooling came from the failure of the ordinary route. Michigan Public reported that Holtec told regulators its usual fuel-moving machine could not retrieve the assembly, which is why the company proposed a purpose-built canister to carry it from the reactor to the spent fuel pool. The comment in the NRC record describes the planned path as leaving the normal underwater transfer route, passing through the equipment hatch into the spent fuel pool building and crossing over the North Tilt Pit, where spent fuel is stored. That description is the commenter’s reading of Holtec’s plan, and the NRC release does not repeat it.
Holtec called the recovery error-free. Its chief nuclear officer, Fadi Diya, credited the team’s commitment to safety and teamwork and said that when a challenge arises, what matters is the response to it, and the company described the retrieval as the removal of “a significant obstacle to the historic restart of Palisades.” Those are the company’s own characterizations, issued with the Oct. 21 announcement.
Cause, fuel loading and the restart date
Holtec and the NRC are both still investigating why the assembly tipped, according to Michigan Public, so the one finding that would explain the August event is not yet public. The company says fuel loading can now resume. It no longer gives a timeline for restarting operations, and Michigan Public notes that the original plan called for generating power a year earlier and that the company’s contract includes a commitment to sell power by March 1, 2027.
Critics read the episode as a warning. The National reports that Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear engineer who advises Don’t Waste Michigan, wrote to Senator Edward Markey calling the restart unsafe, citing the lost fuel bundle, the failure of nine of 15 licensed operators on an exam and fear of retaliation among quality assurance and procurement staff. The same report notes that a 2026 NRC inspection found a chilled work environment in the supply chain and quality assurance departments, which Holtec says it is addressing, and that Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer has continued to praise the restart.
What is settled is narrow. The NRC approved one amendment for one assembly on Oct. 13, and Holtec says the assembly was retrieved by Oct. 21. What is not settled is the cause of the tip, the effect on the restart timeline and whether the regulator will say more about how the lift went. Holtec says operations will resume once all required work is finished and federal requirements and industry standards are met.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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