Palisades operators: 9 of 15 failed licensing exams

Nine of the 15 reactor operators training to restart the Palisades plant in Michigan failed their initial licensing examinations, results the Nuclear Regulatory Commission released after an inspection this year. Six people passed. The exams were administered in July and August.

The NRC told Holtec International, the company attempting the restart, to address what the agency called a "chilled work environment" at the site. Inspectors reported that employees were reluctant to raise safety concerns because they feared retaliation.

The inspection began in July. It followed an incident last year in which a contractor fell into the reactor cavity. The worker swallowed some water, was sent off-site for medical care, and was decontaminated by radiation protection staff. An incident report stated that 300 counts per minute were still detectable in the worker's hair.

A second incident occurred in August, when a bundle of nuclear fuel rods tilted during refueling. That event delayed what was expected to be the first restart of a closed nuclear reactor in the United States.

Holtec has never operated a nuclear power plant. The company has secured roughly $2.2 billion in government support for the Palisades effort, a project central to the push to revive domestic nuclear power. Critics argue that financial and political pressure to expand nuclear energy, driven by electricity demand from artificial intelligence, could raise the likelihood of accidents.

Two other plants slated for decommissioning, Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania and Duane Arnold in Iowa, announced restart plans after work began at Palisades.