Power & Sites · United States

Palisades proposes method to retrieve 'tipped nuclear fuel assembly', but concerns remain

Credited to The National · thenationalnews.com · 3h ago

Photograph · The National

A battle is brewing over how to retrieve a tipped fuel assembly at the soon-to-be-restarted Palisades nuclear reactor in Michigan.

The reactor, which closed in 2022 but was purchased by Holtec International, has become a poster child for an AI and data centre-induced nuclear energy renaissance in the US.

Efforts to restart the reactor in Covert, Michigan, hit a snag on August 30, when, according to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), one of the fuel assemblies tipped during fuelling, causing resumption to be placed on hold. The NRC said no radiation was released during the incident.

But the incident has confirmed concerns about the unorthodox nature of restarting a shuttered nuclear reactor, which are known as “ zombie reactors ”. According to publicly available documents and correspondence between Palisades workers and the NRC, Holtec International has proposed a method for retrieving the tipped fuel.

In the requests Holtec made to the NRC, the company says that the fuel rods have “retained their integrity as primary fission product barrier”. The energy firm also says that the fuel assembly is situated at a 30-degree angle “from the core plate”.

Yet an inquiry from the NRC indicates "that fuel assembly exhibits significant bowing".

In response to the NRC's question about the bowing, Holtec communicates that the company checked with its fuel vender about the situation.

"Based on a review by our fuel vendor, the assembly is expected to straighten out without risk of fuel cladding failure inside the fuel transfer canister," Holtec's response reads in part.

In its application, Holtec proposed using a specially designed recovery tool to lift the tilted assembly and a protective canister to support and enclose it during its transfer from the reactor vessel to the spent fuel pool.

A news release on Friday from the environmental advocacy group Don't Waste Michigan, however, expressed distrust in Holtec. “This has never been done anywhere, and Holtec has never operated a nuclear power plant,” the non-profit said. The NRC has not yet indicated if it will grant approval to Holtec's proposal.

“The peril of Palisades's fuel retrieval is that highly irradiated fuel will be suspended out of water in the plant atmosphere for up to 133 hours,” Don't Waste Michigan alleges. “This will be a highly radioactively contaminated undertaking.”

Yet in Holtec's licence amendment request, provided to the NRC on September 30, the company insists that everything will be done according to regulatory limits. “There is no significant increase in the probability of an accident,” the document reads.

Shortly after confirming the tipped fuel assembly incident several weeks ago, Holtec said that the reactor's fuel loading had been paused while the company addressed the situation, but that other restart efforts “not dependent on resolution of the fuel-loading matter” were still under way.

Despite both the NRC and Holtec confirming that no radiation was released, critics of the Palisades restart often point to the reactor's history of controversy. Before it was bought by Holtec, a 2012 NRC report warned about the work culture at Palisades, where it said safety concerns were often dismissed.

In 2016, security staff at the reactor were placed on leave from the plant, which was then owned by Entergy, for failing to properly follow fire-prevention protocol. A little more than a year ago, a worker at Palisades fell off a refuelling bridge into a pool of water, though they were not seriously injured.

Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear engineer and expert adviser for Don't Waste Michigan, said that there are plenty of reasons to be concerned about Holtec's efforts to restart the reactor. “It is clear that they want approval to remove the tilted fuel bundle because they want to expedite the refuelling,” he claimed.

“They provide no root cause analysis as to how the event happened in order to assure that it cannot happen again. nor have they evaluated any damage within the reactor that the fuel bundle may have caused.”

Holtec, however, has previously said that the company is working to figure out why the fuel assembly tipped. “A root cause evaluation has been initiated to determine the cause of the event,” a statement read. It also promised to implement any corrective actions necessary.

Power & SitesUnited States

Oracle Trucking Gas to Keep Data Centers on Track

Credited to Bloomberg$ · bloomberg.com4h ago

Useful

Oracle is using a new power strategy to keep many of its data centers on track: trucking natural gas directly to the server farms. The company is considering using this approach to speed up a build in New Mexico, where a gas pipeline needed to help power one of its crucial data…

View the article · $Bloomberg

Front Method

Power & Sites · United States

Amazon drops data center NDAs, and AI agents want your credit card

Credited to TechCrunch · techcrunch.com · 5h ago

Amazon says it will stop using NDAs when negotiating data center deals with local governments, following a similar move from Microsoft earlier this year. Secrecy has fueled community backlash against AI infrastructure, with opposition leading to hundreds of proposed and enacted moratoriums from New York to San Francisco. Meanwhile, a wave of startups is betting that consumers will hand AI agents access to their inboxes, files, and credit cards — if they can get websites to let them in.

On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Anthony Ha, Sean O’Kane, and Rebecca Bellan dig into whether ditching NDAs will change how data center deals get done, why trust may be the real product for personal AI startups, plus a couple of deals of the week.

Listen to the full episode to hear more about:

We’ll see you next week at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026! Get 25% off your tickets with code Equity25, and we’ll see you on the Builders Stage Tuesday at 9 am.

Theresa Loconsolo is an audio producer at TechCrunch focusing on Equity, the network’s flagship podcast. Before joining TechCrunch in 2022, she was one of 2 producers at a four-station conglomerate where she wrote, recorded, voiced and edited content, and engineered live performances and interviews from guests like lovelytheband. Theresa is based in New Jersey and holds a bachelors degree in Communication from Monmouth University.

You can contact or verify outreach from Theresa by emailing [email protected].

Anthony Ha is TechCrunch’s weekend editor. Previously, he worked as a tech reporter at Adweek, a senior editor at VentureBeat, a local government reporter at the Hollister Free Lance, and vice president of content at a VC firm. He lives in New York City.

You can contact or verify outreach from Anthony by emailing [email protected].

Rebecca Bellan is a senior reporter at TechCrunch where she covers the business, policy, and emerging trends shaping artificial intelligence. Her work has also appeared in Forbes, Bloomberg, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, and other publications.

You can contact or verify outreach from Rebecca by emailing [email protected] or via encrypted message at rebeccabellan.491 on Signal.

Sean O’Kane is a reporter who has spent a decade covering the rapidly-evolving business and technology of the transportation industry, including Tesla and the many startups chasing Elon Musk. Most recently, he was a reporter at Bloomberg News where he helped break stories about some of the most notorious EV SPAC flops. He previously worked at The Verge, where he also covered consumer technology, hosted many short- and long-form videos, performed product and editorial photography, and once nearly passed out in a Red Bull Air Race plane.

You can contact or verify outreach from Sean by emailing [email protected] or via encrypted message at okane.01 on Signal.