Environmentalists Protest Nuclear Regulatory Commission Cover-Up

In a stunning admission critics are calling the “Friday Night Massacre,” the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Staff acknowledged that it was watching, but had done nothing to stop, Holtec International, as it violated the regulatory conditions of its license at the Palisades atomic reactor.

Late Friday night, July 18, NRC Staff posted a report suggesting that Holtec was already actively performing its proposed steam generator tube sleeving repairs without agency approval.

“The NRC is not an Elliot Ness tough cop regulator. Instead, the 'Friday Night Massacre' at Palisades shows NRC and Holtec are more like Ness joining in with Al Capone on the St. Valentine's Day Massacre,” said nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen, the environmental coalition’s expert witness on nuclear safety issues, such as the dangerously degraded steam generators.

The smoking gun NRC document, entitled “PALISADES NUCLEAR PLANT – RESTART INSPECTION REPORT,” dated July 17, 2025, stated, in relevant part on Page 5 (Page 8 of 17 on the PDF counter):

“…The inspectors verified that the following NDE [Non-Destructive Examination] and repair/replacement activities were conducted appropriately per the ASME [American Society of Mechanical Engineers] Code or required standard, and that any potential indications and defects were identified and evaluated at the proper thresholds:…

…Steam Generator Tube Inspection Activities (IP Section 03.04)

Steam generator ‘A’ tube sleeving and eddy current testing…”

“If the existing ‘defueled’ Technical Specifications are in effect, Holtec cannot do any sleeving. Sleeving requires a Tech Spec change. So if Holtec has already sleeved, then they violated the current Tech Specs,” said Gundersen. “Holtec may claim that they did it at their own risk, but last I looked, you can’t break the law anticipating the law might change in the future. And the NRC tacitly acknowledges they knew the law was being broken,” Gundersen added.

"Of course, Holtec is not only proceeding at its own risk, but is putting the Great Lakes State, and the entire Great Lakes Basin, at existential risk, of a Chornobyl- or Fukushima-level radioactive catastrophe," said Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste specialist at Beyond Nuclear, based in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

“It appears that Holtec could well already be rushing ahead with the sleeving of dangerously degraded steam generator tubes, even though our legal challenge against the adequacy of that proposed band-aid fix is still underway at the NRC licensing board,” said Wally Taylor, an attorney based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa representing the coalition.

“If Holtec is indeed already sleeving damaged steam generator tubes, this means the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board proceedings have been turned into a farce by NRC Staff’s complicity in the regulatory violations,” said Terry Lodge, an attorney based in Toledo, Ohio representing the coalition. “Holtec decides what to do, and when, while NRC maintains the mere illusion of regulation, and with a wink and nod, allows Holtec to proceed, in secret, despite our coalition’s official legal intervention opposing these dangerous shortcuts on safety,” Lodge added.

“Did NRC wait to publish the Palisades restart inspection report late on a Friday night, while we were busy meeting an entirely related deadline, hoping we would have less chance of noticing it?” asked Taylor.

Gundersen has previously testified in written declarations that the already degraded steam generators, in need of replacement for two decades, were made significantly worse by Holtec’s “rookie error” of neglecting to implement critical safety maintenance — wet layup — from 2022 to 2024, allowing corrosive chemical attack both inside and outside the exceedingly thin-walled steam generator tubes. Gundersen has also warned that a cascading failure of steam generator tubes could result in a reactor core meltdown, and catastrophic release of hazardous radioactivity into the environment.

Ironically, the coalition’s legal counsel were, at that very moment late Friday night, rebutting attacks on the coalition’s petition to intervene and request for hearings, regarding Holtec’s License Amendment Request (LAR) to the NRC, for permission to merely sleeve dangerously degraded steam generator tubes, rather than replace the steam generators in their entirety. The coalition had petitioned to intervene and requested a hearing on June 16, 2025. NRC Staff and Holtec then filed Answers, challenging the coalition’s petition and request. The coalition had until 11:59pm Eastern Time on Friday, July 18 to file its Reply to the Answers. The coalition met the deadline, defending its concerns regarding potentially dangerous operations to commence, potentially in the very near future, from using questionable repairs on its old, degraded steam generators, if NRC approves Holtec’s scheme.

The environmental coalition legally intervening against Holtec’s unprecedented, unneeded, exorbitantly expensive for the public, and extremely high risk for health, safety, and the environment, Palisades restart scheme includes: Beyond Nuclear, Don’t Waste Michigan, Michigan Safe Energy Future, Nuclear Energy Information Service of Chicago, and Three Mile Island Alert of Pennsylvania.