ML25007A216

Draft EA P. Roos Letter

ML25007A216
Person / Time
Site:	Palisades
Issue date:	01/30/2025
From:	Daniel Barnhurst NRC/NMSS/DREFS/EPMB3
To:	Roos P State of MI, Dept of Environment, Great Lakes, & Energy
Shared Package
ML25007A211	List: ML25007A216
References
EPID L-2024-LNE-0003
Download: ML25007A216 (1)

Text

Phillip Roos, Director Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy Constitution Hall 525 West Allegan Street P.O. Box 30473 Lansing, MI 48909-7973

SUBJECT:

NOTIFICATION OF THE ISSUANCE OF THE DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT AND DRAFT FINDING OF NO SIGNIFICANT IMPACT FOR 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 Director Phillip Roos:

In a letter dated July 1, 2024, (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Accession No. ML24152A013), the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) notified your office that it is conducting an environmental review for a series of licensing and regulatory requests submitted by Holtec Decommissioning International, LLC (HDI) that, if approved, would collectively support reauthorizing power operations at Palisades Nuclear Plant (Palisades). These requests are the proposed actions before the NRC and include an exemption request, a license transfer request, and license amendment requests. The NRC is the lead Federal agency for the environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended, with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) serving as a cooperating agency. DOE LPOs proposed action, pursuant to its authority under Title 17 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, as amended, is consideration of providing Federal financial support (a loan guarantee) to HDI for the resumption of power operations at Palisades.

As part of this review, the NRC and DOE LPO staff have completed a draft environmental assessment (EA) and draft Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI), Draft Environmental Assessment and Draft Finding of No Significant Impact for the Palisades Nuclear Plant Reauthorization of Power Operations Project (ADAMS Accession No. ML24353A157). The associated Federal Register notice was published on January 31, 2025, and is available at https://www.federalregister.gov. The draft EA and draft FONSI are also available on the NRCs website at https://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/reactors/pali.html#pali-1.

The NRC is sending the draft EA and draft FONSI to your agency for review and comment.

Please note that the evaluation of coastal zone management compliance is in Section 3.2 of the draft EA. As described in Section 3.2 of the draft EA, the NRC staff has determined that the proposed Federal actions would not be substantially different from the description or January 30, 2025

P. Roos 2

understanding of the effects at the time of the original activity. The NRC requests your agency review this evaluation and provide any feedback, as appropriate.

The NRC invites your office to submit any comments or concerns on the draft EA and draft FONSI during the 30-day comment period, which ends on March 03, 2025. Comments can be submitted by the following methods:

1.

Emailing PalisadesRestartEnvironmental@nrc.gov; 2.

Going to https://regulations.gov and searching for Docket ID NRC-2024-0076; or 3.

Mailing comments to the Office of Administration, Mail Stop: TWFN-7-A60M, U.S.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001, ATTN: Program Management, Announcements and Editing Staff.

After consideration of public comments received on the draft EA, the NRC and DOE LPO staff will prepare a final EA and final FONSI unless the staff determines that the proposed actions would have a significant impact on the human environment, in which case the staff would proceed to prepare an environmental impact statement. If it is determined that a final EA and final FONSI should be issued, it is expected that they would be published in June 2025.

If you have any questions concerning the NRCs environmental review, please contact Environmental Project Manager, Mary Richmond, by phone at 301-415-7218 or via email at Mary.Richmond@nrc.gov; or Environmental Project Manager, Laura Willingham, by phone at 301-415-0857 or via email at Laura.Willingham@nrc.gov.

Sincerely, Daniel Barnhurst, Chief Environmental Project Management Branch 3 Division of Rulemaking, Environmental, and Financial Support Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards Docket No. 50-0255 cc: GovDelivery Jeremy Rubio, Compliance Officer Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy Kalamazoo District Office 7953 Adobe Road Kalamazoo, MI 49009-5025 Signed by Barnhurst, Daniel on 01/30/25

ML25007A216

• via email OFFICE PM:REFS/EPM3 LA:REFS/EPM3 OGC PM:REFS/EPM3 BC:REFS/EPM3 NAME LWillingham MCampestrin AGhosh*

LWillingham DBarnhurst DATE 1/28/2025 1/29/2025 1/29/2025 1/30/2025 1/30/2025