The key race: Palisades may move the tilted assembly, and has not reported doing so
Palisades remains the nearest large-reactor restart, and it is still not generating. On October 13, 2026 the NRC issued Amendment No. 283 to Renewed Facility Operating License DPR-20. The amendment is effective on issuance and must be implemented within 10 days. It revises the Updated Final Safety Analysis Report so Palisades Energy can remove fuel assembly DD41 from the reactor cavity and move it to the spent fuel pool. The cover letter says the change is needed in order to resume fuel loading and move toward startup. Staff processed the September 30 request as an exigent amendment under 10 CFR 50.91(a)(6), not as the emergency approval Holtec had requested for October 2.
The issuance letter does not say the lift has happened. WLKI reported on October 16 that Holtec has not announced when the recovery will begin, or whether the plant can still return to service by the end of the year. Fuel loading stopped on August 30, when the assembly tipped. An approved recovery method is not electricity on the grid.
Who is ahead: a construction permit is not steel, and a target date is not a permit
The NRC's October 5 Federal Register notice records Construction Permit CPAR-2, issued September 28 and immediately effective, for TVA's Clinch River Unit 1 in Roane County, Tennessee. The notice authorizes TVA to construct the power reactor described in the application. It does not report that construction has started, and it does not issue an operating license.
Long Mott Energy's Xe-100 project still has no construction permit. The NRC project page, last reviewed September 14, lists the final safety evaluation as a November 2026 target, the hearing as TBD, and the construction-permit decision as TBD. The page describes a four-module plant of 800 MWth and 320 MWe. A November target is not an issued permit.
What decides the next step
Palisades has to implement Amendment 283, move DD41, finish fuel loading, and put the plant on the grid. The amendment must be implemented within 10 days of October 13. Clinch River has to turn CPAR-2 into construction that the October 5 notice has not reported. Long Mott has to turn a November safety-evaluation target into a final evaluation and a later permit.
None of those steps produced restart generation, a reported Clinch River construction start, or a Long Mott construction permit this week. Oklo's isotope pilot does not move this power-plant order.
Oklo's Groves-2 is an isotope pilot, not a power plant
On October 13 Oklo said it will advance Groves-2 Forge as part of the Department of Energy's Nuclear Energy Launch Pad. Oklo described it as an isotope production and processing pilot that would irradiate targets and process isotopes, starting with lutetium-177. The company said a move from pilot operations to commercial-scale production still requires the appropriate NRC licenses. The release does not state a power level, a site, or a schedule for Groves-2.
The announcement does not change the restart and construction-permit order. Oklo's release ties the pilot to the existing Groves test reactor, which it says reached criticality on private land under the Reactor Pilot Program. Commercial isotope output still waits on NRC licenses that the release does not say have been filed.
What to watch through 2027
Watch whether Holtec moves DD41 within 10 days of October 13 and then resumes the rest of fuel loading. Watch whether TVA reports safety-related construction under CPAR-2. Watch whether the NRC issues the Long Mott final safety evaluation in November and sets a permit date.
Watch whether Oklo names a site, a schedule, or an NRC license path for Groves-2. Until DD41 is moved, Clinch River construction is reported, or Long Mott receives a permit, the isotope announcement does not change the order of this race.
