The Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan is now one step closer to making history as the first US nuclear plant to return to service after decommissioning. Holtec International announced last week that all major projects tied to the restart effort are complete. What remains is the routine work of maintenance, testing, and inspections before the plant is cleared to once again supply power to the grid. Palisades, which carries a capacity of roughly 0.85 GW, originally retired at the end of 2022, and its comeback has been closely watched across the industry. The original timeline targeted a return to service by the end of 2025, which was later pushed to early 2026. The recent announcements offered no firm restart date.

Figure 1 | Palisades Nuclear Plant Outage Level (MW)

The Palisades story is part of a broader shift. With electricity demand climbing on the back of AI-driven data center growth, and with political support for nuclear power gaining momentum, more retired plants are being eyed for revival. The Crane Clean Energy Center in Pennsylvania, formerly Three Mile Island, is expected back online in 2027 to supply Microsoft, while NextEra Energy and Google have struck an agreement to bring the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa back into service. Palisades is the leading edge of a trend that could reshape the US nuclear fleet over the coming years.

Figure 2 | Total US Nuclear Plant Outages (MW)

At Energy GPS, we track nuclear outages daily across our nuclear dashboards. By subscribing, you can monitor outage levels however you need them, whether by region, at the individual plant level, or on a national basis, as shown in Figure 2, which is drawn from our NRC Nuclear Plant Summary. We also provide a forecast for upcoming refueling outages by plant, giving subscribers a forward look at where generation is likely to come off the system in the weeks ahead.

As the nuclear landscape shifts and plants like Palisades move back onto the grid, staying on top of outage data has never been more valuable. Contact us for subscription options and see how our nuclear dashboards can keep you a step ahead of the market.