ML24155A026

Jean A. Fleming, VP Licensing, Holtec-Palisades-NOI to Conduct Scoping Process and Prep an EA-EPID No. L-2024-LNE-0003; Docket 50-0255

ML24155A026
Person / Time
Site:	Palisades
Issue date:	06/27/2024
From:	Daniel Barnhurst NRC/NMSS/DREFS/ENRB
To:	Fleming J Holtec
References
EPID L-2024-LNE-0003
Download: ML24155A026 (1)

Text

Jean A. Fleming, Vice President Licensing, Regulatory Affairs, and Probabilistic Safety Analysis Holtec International, LLC Krishna P. Singh Technology Campus 1 Holtec Boulevard Camden, NJ 08104

SUBJECT:

INITIATION OF SCOPING PROCESS TO PREPARE AN ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR THE ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW OF HOLTEC DECOMMISSIONING INTERNATIONAL, LLCS LICENSING AND REGULATORY REQUESTS FOR REAUTHORIZATION OF POWER OPERATIONS AT PALISADES NUCLEAR PLANT (EPID NUMBER: L-2024-LNE-0003) (DOCKET NUMBER: 50-0255)

Dear Jean A. Fleming:

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is conducting an environmental review for a series of licensing and regulatory requests submitted by Holtec Decommissioning International, LLC (HDI) that seek NRC approvals to reauthorize power operations at the Palisades Nuclear Plant (PNP). These requests include an exemption request, a license transfer request, and license amendment requests. Concurrently, the U.S. Department of Energys (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO)s proposed action, pursuant to its authority under Title 17 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, as amended, is the consideration of providing Federal financial assistance (a loan guarantee) to support the reauthorization of power operations at PNP. Accordingly, the DOE LPO will serve as a cooperating agency on the environmental review while the NRC will serve as the lead Federal agency under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended (NEPA). The purpose of this letter is to inform you about the NRCs upcoming environmental review activities.

Enclosed is a table that list the submittals received and the NRCs Agencywide Documents Access and Management Systems accession number information for the submittals and their associated NRC acceptance letters. This information can also be found on the NRC website at https://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/reactors/pali.html.

By letter dated June 18, 2024 (ML24169A434), the NRC accepted the last submittal associated with the licensing and regulatory requests to potentially reauthorize power operations at PNP.

As part of the review of these requests, the NRC staff is preparing an environmental assessment (EA) as required by Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) Part 51, the NRCs regulations that implement NEPA.

June 27, 2024

J. Fleming The NRC staff published a Notice of Intent (NOI) in the Federal Register on June 27, 2024 (89 FR 53659), thereby initiating the NRCs environmental review under NEPA. This notice informs stakeholders, including the public, that the NRC intends to conduct a 30-day scoping period to gather the information necessary to prepare an EA related to the review of the licensing and regulatory requests for the potential reauthorization of power operations at PNP.

As discussed in the NOI, the NRC and DOE LPO are providing stakeholders, including the public, with the opportunity to participate in a hybrid environmental scoping meeting to be held on July 11, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. eastern time (ET), at Mendel Center, Grand Upton Hall, at Lake Michigan College, 1100 Yore Ave, Parking Lot 3, Benton Harbor, Michigan, 49022, and will also hold an open house from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET. Additional information including an the agenda for the meeting can be found on the NRCs Public Meeting Schedule website at:

https://www.nrc.gov/pmns/mtg.1 At this meeting, the NRC and DOE LPO staff will present an overview of the environmental review process, hold a brief question and answer session, and will solicit comments on the scope of the environmental review. HDI, Holtec Palisades, LLC, and Palisades Energy, LLC are invited to participate in the environmental scoping process.

In addition to the public scoping meeting, comments or concerns on the scope of the environmental review may be submitted no later than the end of the comment period on July 29, 2024, via any of the following methods:

Email comments to: PalisadesRestartEnvironmental@nrc.gov; Mail comments to: Office of Administration, Mail Stop: TWFN-7-A60M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, ATTN: Program Management, Announcements and Editing Staff; or Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2024-0076.

The NRC expects to issue the draft EA for public review and comment in January 2025. A copy of the draft EA will be made available for your review and comment.

1 The meeting announcement can be found by going to the NRCs public meeting website at https://www.nrc.gov/pmns/mtg and locating the July 11th public scoping meeting entry. Additional information about the meeting (e.g., agenda) can be found by clicking the links in the scoping meeting entry.

J. Fleming If you have any questions on the project or the scoping meeting, please contact the environmental project managers, Laura Willingham at 301-415-0857 or via email at Laura.Willingham@nrc.gov or Mary Richmond at 301-415-7218 or via email at Mary.Richmond@nrc.gov.

Sincerely, Daniel Barnhurst, Chief Environmental Project Management Branch 3 Division of Rulemaking, Environment, and Financial Support Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards Docket No.: 50-0255

Enclosure:

1.

Holtec Decommissioning International, LLC, Submittals to Reauthorize Power Operations at the Palisades Nuclear Plant cc: Listserv Signed by Barnhurst, Daniel on 06/27/24

ML24155A026 OFFICE PM:REFS LA:REFS/EPM2 PM:REFS/EPMB3 OGC PM:REFS/EPMB3 BC:REFS/EPMB3 NAME MRichmond AWalker-Smith LWillingham MASpencer LWillingham DBarnhurst DATE 06/04/2024 06/04/2024 06/14/2024 06/27/2024 06/27/2024 06/27/2024

Enclosure Holtec Decommissioning International, LLC Submittals to Reauthorize Power Operations at the Palisades Nuclear Plant 1 Publicly available documents can be found online in the NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management Systems (ADAMS) Public Documents collection at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the search, select Begin Web-based ADAMS Search. For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR) reference staff at 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, or by email to PDR.Resource@nrc.gov.

Holtec Decommissioning International, LLC Submittal ADAMS1 Accession No.

NRC Acceptance Letter ADAMS Accession No.

Request for Exemption from Certain Termination of License Requirements of 10 CFR 50.82, dated September 28, 2023.

ML23271A140 ML23291A440 Application for Order Consenting to Transfer of Control of License and Conforming License Amendments, dated December 6, 2023.

ML23340A161 ML24012A242 Request to Revise Operating License and Technical Specifications to Support Resumption of Power Operations, dated December 14, 2023.

ML23348A148 ML24022A117 Request to Revise the Administrative Technical Specifications to Support Resumption of Power Operations, dated February 9, 2024.

ML24040A089 ML24060A221 Request to Reinstate the Palisades Emergency Plan to Support Resumption of Power Operations, dated May 1, 2024.

ML24122C666 ML24141A119 Request to Revise the Main Steam Line Break Methodology for Palisades Nuclear Plant to Support Resumption of Power Operations, dated May 24, 2024.

ML24145A145 ML24169A434