ML24295A362

Request for Additional Information Quality Assurance Program to Support License Transfer Request

ML24295A362
Person / Time
Site:	Palisades
Issue date:	10/21/2024
From:	Justin Poole Plant Licensing Branch III
To:	Miksa J Entergy Nuclear Operations
Wall S
References
EPID L-2023-LLM-0005
Download: ML24295A362 (1)

Text

From: Justin Poole (He/Him)

To: James Miksa Cc: Michael Schultheis; Ngola Otto

Subject:

Request for Additional Information RE: Quality Assurance Program to Support License Transfer Request Date: Monday, October 21, 2024 1:04:00 PM Attachments: RAI-10281-R1-Final.pdf

Jim,

By letter dated December 6, 2023, (Agencywide Document Access and Management System (ADAMS) Accession No. ML23340A161), Holtec Decommissioning International, LLC (HDI), on behalf of Holtec Palisades, LLC, Palisades Energy, LLC, and itself, submitted an application for an order approving the transfer of the license and conforming amendment regarding Palisades Nuclear Plant and its associated independent spent fuel storage facility to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). By letter dated May23,2024, (ML24144A106), HDI supplemented the application with the Palisades Energy, LLC Quality Assurance Program Manual (QAPM), Revision 0, (hereafter referred to as Palisades QAPM).

On August 23, 2024, the NRC staff sent the licensee DRAFT RAIs to ensure that the questions are understandable, the regulatory basis is clear, there is no proprietary information contained in the RAIs, and to determine if the information was previously docketed. On Sept 12, 2024, the NRC and the licensee held a clarification call to discuss the DRAFT RAIs. During the call, the licensee requested a response date of 30 days from the date of this email. The NRC staff informed the licensee that this timeframe is acceptable. Following the call, during a review by the Office of General Council, an additional subpart to the question was add (subpart h). On October 10, 2024, a draft of subpart h was shared with the licensee. On October 21, 2024, the license stated that no clarification call was needed to discuss subpart h. Other than the addition of subpart h, no other changes were made to the DRAFT version sent on August 23, 2024. The attached is the final version of the RAIs. These RAIs will be put in ADAMS as a publicly available document.

Justin C. Poole Project Manager Palisades Restart NRR/DORL/LPL 3 U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (301)415-2048

REQUEST FOR ADDITIONAL INFORM ATION BY THE OFFICE O F NUCLEAR REACTOR REGULATION PALISADES NUCLEAR PLANT LICENSE TRANSFER AS PART OF RESTART EFFORT HOLTEC DECOMMISSIONING INTERNATIONAL, LLC DOCKET NO. 50- 255

Questi on 1

B y letter dat ed Dece mber 6, 20 23, (A gencywide Doc umen t A ccess and Mana geme nt S ystem (A DA MS ) A ccession No. ML23340A161), Holt ec Decom missioning I nter nation al, LLC (HDI ), on behalf of Holtec P alisades, LLC, P alisad es E nerg y, LLC, and its elf, sub mitted an ap plication f or an ord er a pprovin g the trans fer o f the lice nse an d conf ormin g ame ndm ent r egar ding P alisades Nuclear P lant a nd its ass ociated i ndepe nden t spent fuel sto rag e facility to t he U.S. Nuclea r Regulatory Commissio n (NRC). B y lett er da ted M ay 23, 2024, (M L241 44A106), HDI suppleme nted t he ap plication with the P alisad es E nerg y, L LC Quality A ssura nce P rog ram Manual (QA P M), Revision 0, (h erea fter refe rred to as P alisad es QA P M).

The NRC staff r eviewed t he info rmati on pr esente d in th e P alisades QA P M a gainst t he qu ality assuranc e (QA ) r equir emen ts in A ppen dix B Quality A ssura nce Crit eria fo r Nuclea r P ower P lants and Fuel Rep rocessing P lants, t o Title 10 of t he Code of F eder al Regulati ons (10 CFR)

P art 50, D omestic Licensing of P rod uction a nd Utilization Facilities, in acco rdance with the review guid ance in NURE G-0 800, S tanda rd Review P lan (S RP ) for t he Review of S afety A nalysis Reports f or Nuclea r P ower P lants : LWR E dition, S ection 17.3, Quality Assur ance P rogram D escriptio n, Revision 0. B ased on this review, th e NRC staff re quests a ddition al informati on, as docum ented below, to comple te its r eview.

Criterion I, Or ganizatio n, o f A ppendix B to 10 CFR P a rt 50 req uires, in part, that the applicant shall be r esponsible for t he est ablishme nt an d execu tion of the Q uality A ssurance P rogr am (QA P )The a utho rity and duties o f pe rson a nd or ganizati ons pe rfor m ing ac tivities affecting the safety-r elated functions of S S Cs shall be cle arly est ablished and d elineat ed in writin g. The persons and o rganiz ations p erfo rming QA fu nctions s hall have s ufficient au thority and organiza tional f reedo m to id entify q uality pr oblems; to initiat e, rec omm end, o r pr ovide sol utions; and to v erify impl ement ation o f solutio ns. Thes e pers ons an d or ganizatio ns pe rfor ming q uality assuranc e functio ns shall r epor t to a man agem ent level s o that the requi red a uthority and organiza tional f reedom, inclu ding sufficient indep ende nce fr om cost and sch edule w hen opposed to saf ety consid eratio ns, ar e pr ovided.

S RP S ection 17.3, S u bsection II, S RP A ccepta nce Crite ria, Item A.2 s pecifies acce ptanc e criteria to meet the requi reme nts of Crit erion I of A ppe ndix B to 1 0 CFR P art 50. It em A.2 of this S RP section includes the f ollowing acce ptanc e crite ria:

• Item a. st ates, in part, that Th e QA P D is to cont ain an orga nizational descripti on th at address es the orga nizational s tructu re, f unction al resp onsibilities, levels of aut horit y, an d interfaces. The o rganiz ational descriptio n is to incl ude th e onsit e and offsite or ganizatio nal elements t hat f unction unde r the c ognizanc e of t he Q A pro gra m.

• Item b. st ates, in part, that, T here is to be indep ende nce betw een p ersons and organiza tions exec uting p erfo rma nce activities and t hose ex ecuting v erificatio n and s elf-assessment activities.

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• Item c. sta tes, th at The p erson filling the most s enior-level ma nage ment position is responsibl e for i mplem enting t he Q A policy a nd pr ogr am.

• Item d. st ates, in part, that A mana geme nt positio n, in which the responsi bility for c arryin g out the s elf-assess ment function, includin g inde pende nt revi ew-gr oup ac tivities, audits, and other in depe ndent assessm ents r esides, is to be es tablished. The perso n filling this position is to: (1) have s ufficient au thority and o rga nizational f reed om to imple ment assi gned responsibilities, [and] (2) re port at a mana geme nt level sufficien tly high t o ensu re th at cost and sche dule consi derati ons do not u nduly infl uence decision making.

S ection A.2.a, pa ragr aph (1) of the P alisa des QA P M stat es, The Holtec P residen t is responsibl e for overall c orpo rate policy and provid es exec utive dir ection a nd gui dance f or t he corpor ation as well as pr omulg ates co rpor ate p olicy thro ugh t he Com pany s senio r man age ment staff. This sectio n also st ates th at respo nsibility for developin g, impl ementi ng, an d verifyi ng execution of the Quality A ssura nce P rog ram is delega ted to the chi ef nucle ar officer, the highest-lev el nuclea r exec utive, a nd aut hority f or d evelopin g and verifying executio n of t he progr am to the ex ecutive respo nsible fo r nuclea r ove rsight.

S ection A.2.a, pa ragr aph (2) of the P alisa des QA P M stat es, The P resid ent o f Nuclear Generati on an d Decom missioning is resp onsible fo r pr oviding t op-lev el directio n fo r the s afe and relia ble op eratio n and maint enanc e of th e P alisades sit e. The P r esident of Nuclea r Generati on an d Decom missioning provid es guid ance with rega rds to comp any Q A policy. This position is r esponsible for providin g engi neerin g servic es, nucle ar saf ety, and o pera tions support.

S ection A.2.a, pa ragr aph (3) of the P alisa des QA P M stat es, in pa rt, th at The f ollowing executives r epor t to th e P reside nt of Nucl ear G ener ation a nd Deco mmissionin g and provid e govern ance a nd ove rsight in reg ards t o imple mentin g comp any Qu ality A ssurance policy.

• A Chief Nucle ar Officer (CNO), t he hig hest level nuclear executiv e officer, is responsi ble for safe and reliable nuclea r op eratio ns and ope rations s uppo rt. A dditionall y, this p osition is responsibl e for i mplem enting Q uality A ssuranc e policies, goals, a nd obj ectives an d the implement ation of all activities associate d with the safe and r eliable o pera tion of the P alisades site. The following repo rts to t his chief nuclear officer:

• P alisades E nerg y, LLC Vice P reside nt

• Nuclear S afety R eview B oard (NS RB )

• The exec utive r esponsibl e for Licensing /Regulat ory A ssura nce is res ponsible for Q uality A ssurance a nd esta blishes th e policies, goals, a nd obj ectives of t he Qu ality A ssurance policy; provid es guid ance a nd inte rpr etation for im pleme nting t he com pany Q uality A ssurance P olicy; an d is res ponsible for g overn ance and im plemen tation of the Quality A ssurance p rogr am in accord ance with regul atory requi reme nts. The following P alisad es E nergy, LLC Quality A ssur ance p osition r epor ts to t his executive :

• P alisades E nerg y, LLC Q uality A ssuranc e Man age r is resp onsible f or Q A activities a nd is indepen dent o f pro duction. This positi on pr ovides ov erall di rection f or th e imple ment ation of the Q A pr ogra m an d is resp onsible f or Q A gove rna nce. This p osition h as authority and responsibility f or est ablishing, c ontr olling, an d verifyin g imple ment ation a nd ad equacy of the QA prog ram as desc ribed in this QA P M, includin g activities relate d to ve ndor quality.

2 This positio n has t he aut hority t o S top Work a nd r esponsibility t o escala te ma tters directly to t he hig hest level nuclea r executiv e officer wh en ne eded.

S ection A.2.b of t he P alisades QA P M states, The following in tegr ated P alisad es E nerg y, L LC manag ement positions describ e the typical site QA P M fu nctional respo nsibilities, which may be delegate d to o thers as esta blished in this doc ument. This sec tion identifies th e P alisades E nergy, LLC S ite Vice P r esident as the position t hat is r esponsi ble for over all plant nuclear safety at P alisad es and is resp onsible f or est ablishing t he policies, goals, and o bjectives a nd th e implement ation of the QPA M at P alisad es. This secti on also st ates a man agem ent p osition on site for Qu ality A ssurance who has over all auth ority an d res ponsibility fo r esta blishing, controlling, and v erifying t he impl emen tation, and adequ acy of t he Q A pro gra m as desc ribed in the QA P M rep orts di rectly to the co rpor ate manag emen t positio n resp onsible f or licensing/re gulato ry assur ance (offsite).

The NRC staff r equests the applicant to clarify how th e accept ance c riteria i n S RP S ection 1 7.3, S ubsection II, S RP A cceptance Criteria, Ite m A.2.a, b, c, an d d a re a ddress ed by t he P alisades QA P M. S pecifically:

a. Given that the CNO r epor ts to th e P reside nt of Nucl ear G ener ation a nd Decommissionin g and the P resi dent of Nuclea r Gene ratio n and D ecommissio ning is responsibl e for providin g (1 ) top-level di rection f or th e safe and reliable oper ation o f the P alisades site, an d (2 ) guid ance with rega rds to comp any Q A policy, cl arify h ow the CNO is the high est level n uclear executive officer r esponsibl e for s afe a nd r eliable nuclear oper ations.

b. Given that both CNO and th e exec utive res ponsible for Licensing/Re gulato ry A ssuranc e have the resp onsibility for implem enting the P alisad es QA policy and QA prog ram, w hich of these position withi n the HDI or P alisades E nerg y, LLC orga nization has the highes t authority and respo nsibility for i mplem enting t he Q A policy a nd pr ogra m?

c. The P alisades E nergy LLC S ite Vice P r esident, who r eports to th e CNO, is res ponsible for esta blishing th e policies, goals, a nd obj ectives an d the i mplem entatio n of t he QA P M at P alisades. Howev er, a se par ate m anage ment position respo nsible fo r QA, who reports to th e execu tive res ponsible for Lic ensing/Re gulato ry A ssurance, is res ponsible for esta blishing a nd verifyi ng th e imple mentati on an d ade quacy of the QA p rogr am a nd has the autho rity to st op work at P alisades. S ince bot h the P alisad es E ner gy LLC S ite Vice P resident and t he m anag ement position resp onsible f or Q A are resp onsible f or implementi ng th e QA prog ram on site, cl arify th e differe nces be tween t he fu nctions perfor med by thes e two positi ons.

d. Clarify whethe r the P alisades E ner gy, LLC S ite Vice P r esident has th e auth ority t o stop work given t hat this position is respo nsible fo r the i mplem entatio n of t he QA P M at P alisades.

e. Given that the o n-site manag eme nt positio n resp onsible f or Q A has t he a bility to escalate m atters directly t o the highest level nucle ar ex ecutive office r (i.e., CNO) whe n needed, clarify why this positio n re port t o the executive resp onsible fo r Licensing/Reg ulatory A ssu rance.

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f. Clarify what d oes typical site QA P M fu nctional respo nsibilities me an in S ectio n A.2.b of the P alisades QA P M.

g. Clarify use of the t erm the Co mpany in th e QA P M. Does the Co mpa ny r efer t o HDI, P alisades E nerg y, LLC or Holtec P alisa des, L LC?

h. P lease clarify th e QA P M to stat e which p ositions in t he QA P M, if a ny, a re n ot within t he P alisades E nerg y, LLC, orga nization. A lso, if ther e are any suc h positio ns, pleas e explain how t his re mains consist ent with the t ransfe r re quest's pro posal th at P alisades E nergy, LLC, be the sol e license h older wit h licensed ope ration al auth ority fo r P alisades Nuclear P lant.

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