American nuclear power giant Holtec applies for IPO, valuation may exceed $10 billion

Recently, nuclear giant Holtec International has secretly submitted an IPO application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This company, which has been deeply involved in the nuclear energy sector for over 40 years, will become the first mature enterprise to go public in the wave of nuclear energy revival, as previously only startup nuclear energy companies had appeared in the public market. According to Barron's report last June, Holtec's valuation could exceed $10 billion, with annual revenue exceeding $500 million. The company is advancing the first-ever reactor restart project in U.S. history at the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in Michigan, a groundbreaking initiative that has sparked multiple reactor restart plans across the country. Steffan Szumowski, author of The Nuclear Review, stated in a recent article that Holtec's business extends far beyond reactor restarts. The company holds leading positions in several areas, including nuclear power plant decommissioning, small modular reactor development, spent fuel management, and heat exchange equipment manufacturing, with the highest global market share in spent fuel transportation and storage. This diversified layout ensures that its business stability does not rely on the success or failure of the nuclear energy revival. The sustainability of the company's business stems from the long-term demand for over 400 operational reactors worldwide. These facilities will continue to require maintenance, upgrades, and retrofitting services for decades to come, particularly as the demand for spent fuel transportation, processing, and storage services is expected to persist for at least a century. Reactor Restart and Decommissioning Business in Parallel Holtec acquired the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant from Entergy in June 2022 and announced the restart plan in September of the same year. The U.S. Department of Energy has committed to providing $1.5 billion in loans to support the project in 2024 and has already issued multiple loans in 2025. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has created several new regulatory pathways to reissue operating licenses. Due to issues with key equipment such as steam generators, the project's completion timeline has been pushed back from the end of 2025 to mid-2026. After the restart, Holtec will operate the plant independently through its subsidiary Holtec Palisades, with no plans to sell it to a utility company. In terms of decommissioning business, the subsidiary Holtec Decommissioning International is currently responsible for three projects: the Oyster Creek plant in New Jersey, the Pilgrim plant in Massachusetts, and the Indian Point Energy Center in New York. Although Holtec listed Indian Point as a potential restart candidate last year, New York Governor Hochul has clearly opposed this, instead supporting the construction of new nuclear projects in northern New York to achieve a goal of adding 5 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity. Small Reactor Technology Expands Overseas Market Holtec has been developing small modular reactors through its wholly-owned subsidiary SMR LLC for over a decade. Its design has evolved from the initial SMR-160 to the SMR-300 launched in 2023, with a power generation capacity of 320 megawatts. This reactor is designed as a pressurized water reactor and uses commercially available low-enriched uranium fuel. SMR LLC is applying to build the first two SMR-300 units at the Palisades power plant, named Pioneer Unit 1 and Unit 2. The company has submitted a construction application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and is seeking limited work authorization to begin some non-nuclear systems early. The project has received $400 million in funding support from the Department of Energy. In early 2025, Holtec received approval from the U.S. government to export the SMR-300 design to India. The company's CEO has repeatedly stated that India is one of the largest potential nuclear power markets outside of China and will become an important growth opportunity in the future. Spent Fuel Management Faces Policy Resistance Holtec holds the highest market share in the global spent fuel transportation and storage sector with its HI-STORM and HI-STAR dry storage systems, but this business still faces political resistance. New Mexico lawmakers and officials, supported by the oil and gas industry, are working hard to block Holtec from establishing the HI-STORE centralized interim storage facility. This facility aims to consolidate some of the nation's temporary dry storage facilities into one location. Although Holtec received support from the Supreme Court in a lawsuit, the company ultimately canceled the entire project in 2025 due to a prolonged legal battle. In addition to its nuclear business, Holtec is also involved in solar, geothermal, and fossil fuel sectors. Its Green Boiler product is designed to replace phasing-out coal-fired power plants by using engineered salt to store energy from solar or SMR-300 for on-demand dispatch