Holtec International received NRC docketing of its Limited Work Authorization application for Pioneer Units 1 and 2 — dual SMR-300 reactors at the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Covert, Michigan — on February 27, 2026. This is the first NRC construction permit application for an SMR-300 and one of the most significant regulatory milestones in the US SMR programme. Under Mission 2030, announced February 25, 2025 with Hyundai E&C, the Pioneer units target operation by 2030 alongside the Palisades large reactor restart. Holtec received a $400 million DOE grant in December 2025 to support this programme. The dual restart-and-build strategy at Palisades is unique in nuclear history. In June 2026, the NRC began preparing an environmental impact statement for the Pioneer units and opened a 30-day public scoping period. The Palisades site also hosts Holtec's separate restart of the existing large Palisades reactor, for which the NRC granted approval in 2025 — a rare combination of an operating-reactor restart alongside new SMR construction at the same site. The NRC accepted the Limited Work Authorization application on February 13, 2026 (docketing is recorded as February 27, 2026), the NRC's public scoping period for the environmental impact statement ran 30 days to July 15, 2026, and Part 2 of the construction permit application, the Preliminary Safety Analysis Report, was submitted on September 30, 2026 (about nine months before the mid-2027 deadline), and the NRC's draft safety evaluation for the Limited Work Authorization is expected in December 2026. Each SMR-300 unit is rated 340 MWe, and the units would join the Palisades large reactor planned for restart (one record lists the existing reactor at 777 MWe, others at 800 MWe). Palisades SMR, LLC (Holtec's applicant entity) submitted Part 1 of the phased construction permit application, including the Limited Work Authorization request, on December 31, 2025. An earlier, thinner record of this project listed the developer as Palisades SMR, LLC, the capacity as about 600 MW and the reactor type as SMR-300, and cited a Neutron Bytes article for construction being completed in the early 2030s (shown there as 2032), against the 2030 target above; the two SMR-300 units are rated 340 MWe each, about 680 MW in total.