ML24219A420

Change in Estimated Hours and Review Schedule for Licensing Actions Submitted to Support Resumption of Power Operations (Epids L-2023-LLE-0025, L-2023-LLM-0005, L-2023-LLA-0174, L-2024-LLA-0013, L-2024-LLA-0060, L-2024-LLA-0071)

ML24219A420
Person / Time
Site:	Palisades
Issue date:	09/12/2024
From:	Justin Poole Plant Licensing Branch III
To:	Fleming J Holtec
Wall S
References
EPID L-2023-LLE-0025, EPID L-2023-LLM-0005, EPID L-2023-LLA-0174, EPID L-2024-LLA-0013, EPID L-2024-LLA-0060, EPID L-2024-LLA-0071, EPID L-2024-LNE-0003
Download: ML24219A420 (3)

Text

September 12, 2024 Jean A. Fleming Vice President, Licensing, Regulatory Affairs, and PSA Holtec International, LLC Krishna P. Singh Technology Campus 1 Holtec Boulevard Camden, NJ 08104

SUBJECT:

PALISADES NUCLEAR PLANT - CHANGE IN ESTIMATED HOURS AND REVIEW SCHEDULE FOR LICENSING ACTIONS SUBMITTED TO SUPPORT RESUMPTION OF POWER OPERATIONS (EPIDS L-2023-LLE-0025, L-2023-LLM-0005, L-2023-LLA-0174, L-2024-LLA-0013, L-2024-LLA-0060, L-2024-LLA-0071, AND L-2024-LNE-0003)

Dear Jean Fleming:

By letters dated September 28, 2023, December 6, 2023, December 14, 2023, February 9, 2024, May 1, 2024, and May 24, 20241, Holtec Decommissioning International, LLC (the licensee), submitted an exemption, a license transfer request, and four license amendment requests (LARs) to support resumption of power operations at Palisades Nuclear Plant (PNP).

By letters dated November 3, 2023, January 16, 2024, January 23, 2024, March 18, 2024, May 23, 2024, and June 18, 20242, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff notified you that your requests had been accepted for review, and the NRC staff estimated it would complete the safety reviews for those actions by December 31, 2024, December 31, 2024, January 31, 2025, March 15, 2025, May 31, 2025, and June 30, 2025, respectively, and require an estimated total of 3000 hours0.0347 days <br />0.833 hours <br />0.00496 weeks <br />0.00114 months <br />.

In each of these letters, the NRC has stated that these are connected actions that are all necessary to reauthorize placement of fuel into the reactor vessel and reauthorize power operations at PNP, and that the NRC staff will make a determination on its regulatory obligations under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) once all associated requests have been received, and accepted, by the NRC. On June 27, 2024, the NRC published in the Federal Register (89 FR 53659, ML24149A002) the notice of intent (NOI) to conduct a scoping process and prepare an environmental assessment (EA) to evaluate the environmental impacts from the proposed licensing actions related to reauthorization of power operations at PNP. In order for the staff to issue the licensing actions necessary to support resumption of power operations, the NRC staff must document the environmental impacts of the actions in the EA. In accordance with NEPA, the NRC staff must complete the EA within 12-months from the 1 Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Accession Nos. ML23271A140, ML23340A161, ML23348A148, ML24040A089, ML24122C666, and ML24145A143, respectively 2 ADAMS Accession Nos. ML23291A440, ML24012A242, ML24022A117, ML24060A221, ML24141A119, and ML24169A434, respectively

publication of the NOI. In order to track the NRC staffs efforts associated with the environmental review, the staff has opened EPID L-2024-LNE-0003 and has estimated 3600 NRC staff hours and estimated $750,000 in contract support to complete the review.

Based on the above, the purpose of this letter is to officially inform you of the new estimated hours and completion date due to the additional effort and time required by the NRC staff to complete its review of the environmental impacts from the proposed licensing actions related to reauthorization of power operations at PNP. The NRC staff now estimates 6600 total hours and

$750,000 in contract support to complete the safety and environmental review of the submitted licensing actions and expects to issue its final decisions on the licensing actions by July 31, 2025. This estimate could change due to several factors such as requests for additional information and an unanticipated addition of scope to the review. The NRC staff expects to complete the safety reviews within the timeframes in the acceptance letters and will notify you upon completion of the safety reviews through separate correspondence. If there are emergent complexities or challenges in our review that would result in a change to the estimated completion date or significant changes in the estimated hours, the reasons for the change, and a revised estimate will be communicated during routine interactions with the assigned project manager. The change in the estimated completion date was discussed with and approved by the Director for the Division of Operating Reactor Licensing.

If you have any questions, please contact the me at (301) 415-2048 or via email at Justin.Poole@nrc.gov.

Sincerely,

/RA/

Justin C. Poole, Project Manager Plant Licensing Branch III Division of Operating Reactor Licensing Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Docket No.: 50-255 cc: Listserv

ML24219A420 OFFICE NRR/DORL/LPL3/PM NRR/DORL/LPL3/LA NRR/DORL/LPL3/BC NAME JPoole SRohrer JWhited DATE 08/06/2024 08/7/2024 08/29/2024 OFFICE NRR/DORL/LDATA/BC NRR/DORL/D NRR/DORL/LPL3/PM NAME UShoop BPham (JPelton for)

JPoole DATE 08/29/2024 09/10/2024 09/12/2024