Regulators issue safety warnings at flagship nuclear plant restarted for AI compute power
The NRC orders Holtec International to overhaul workplace safety after worker falls and fuel assembly tilts at Michigan's Palisades reactor.
Technology news
Federal nuclear regulators have issued a formal reprimand to Holtec International over safety lapses at the Palisades nuclear generating station in Michigan, the country’s high-profile flagship project aiming to recommission a shuttered reactor to power hyperscale AI data centers.
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) instructed Holtec management to immediately address what inspectors characterized as a 'chilled work environment' where onsite personnel expressed reluctance to raise safety concerns without fear of retaliation. The regulatory action followed multiple critical onsite incidents during preparatory engineering overhauls.
According to NRC inspection reports, a contractor fell into a flooded reactor cavity and ingested contaminated water, requiring offsite decontamination and medical monitoring. In a separate incident during refueling simulations in August, an unlatched bundle of uranium fuel rods tilted precipitously inside the containment vessel, narrowly avoiding severe structural damage.
The safety warnings have intensified scrutiny from nuclear policy experts, who caution that the urgent race among tech hyperscalers to secure gigawatt-scale, carbon-free baseload energy is compressing engineering timelines. With cloud providers committing tens of billions of dollars to guarantee dedicated reactor output, regulatory authorities emphasize that strict operational compliance will supersede commercial delivery deadlines.