The High-Stakes Gamble of Restarting America’s Idle Nuclear Reactors

The drive to restore U.S. nuclear capacity centers on an ambitious executive order aiming to add 5 GW of power by 2030. Yet, the path to reactivation is fraught with engineering hurdles. At the Palisades facility, owner Holtec International—a company with no prior experience operating a nuclear plant—encountered extensive equipment corrosion, leaking water lines, and supply chain bottlenecks. General manager Jeff Borah admitted that the project lacked foundational planning, describing the process as building a fire truck while racing to a blaze.

While Holtec defends its progress, citing the inevitability of discovering "hidden" damage in aging facilities, critics remain skeptical. Environmental groups like Don't Waste Michigan have questioned the safety of repaired components, arguing that resources would be better spent on new construction rather than retrofitting reactors built in the 1970s.

Contrastingly, other projects appear more stable. Constellation Energy’s effort to restore operations at the Three Mile Island site has faced fewer complications, largely because the company maintained intimate knowledge of the reactor’s condition. These divergent experiences suggest that the federal government will likely need to evaluate each reactivation on a case-by-case basis, balancing the promise of quick energy gains against the mounting taxpayer costs and safety risks inherent in breathing life into old machines.