[Verse 1]
August thirty, they're back at the gate
Palisades wants its power back
Four years down, they refill the core
Two-oh-four slots on the board
DD41, old fuel on the line
Lowered into H-one, supposed to align
The grapple lets go and the top gives way
Bottom stays seated as it tilts away
It meets the far shroud, thirty from the plate
Fuel loading stops; now everybody waits
Nobody planned for a bend like this
One small release, and the restart slips

[Verse 2]
Upper tie plate damaged; the old grip won't catch
Can't run that motion backward
The rods stayed intact, and I'm glad that they did
But that's irradiated fuel in a bowed metal grid
The assembly's bent, and the questions get worse
If you force it straight, what takes the hurt?
Spacer grids hold those slender rods in place
Cladding keeps the fission products contained
No leak reported, nobody hurt
Both true. It still makes my stomach turn
They call it stable, but that's where it ends
Stable doesn't mean easy to mend

[Hook]
Thirty degrees, DD41
The grapple let go, now the easy way's gone
Say “intact” till the word wears thin
The top won't take that old grapple again
Thirty degrees, stuck in H-one
No release, and the hard part's begun
You can call it stable, you can call it contained
Can't call it straight, can't lift it the same

[Verse 3]
Twelve lifting arms for a job one grip can't do
A custom canister, a different route
Underwater while the crane takes weight
Shield it outside; don't gamble with dose rate
Not through the old tube; take it out through the hatch
Now the NRC has to sign off on that
Can they close the lid with the assembly bowed?
They expect it to straighten; the grids may deform
Every move gets a calculation and a stop
All this just to get one assembly out
They called it a restart, like the hard part was done
One crooked assembly and the loading won't run

[Hook]
Thirty degrees, DD41
The grapple let go, now the easy way's gone
Say “intact” till the word wears thin
The top won't take that old grapple again
Thirty degrees, stuck in H-one
No release, and the hard part's begun
You can call it stable, you can call it contained
Can't call it straight, can't lift it the same

[Outro]
Lake Michigan, flat by the shore
One bent assembly still inside the core
The rods held together. That's what went right
They haven't said why it tipped to the side
Put it in a report, put a date on the page
Doesn't make that angle go away
DD41, H-one, somebody please
Tell me what safe means at thirty degrees.