ML25013A196
| ML25013A196 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Crane  |
| Issue date: | 03/04/2025 |
| From: | Laura Dudes, Andrea Kock Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, NRC Region 1 |
| To: | Russell Felts, Tara Inverso, John Marshall, Philip Mckenna, Raymond Mckinley, John Mckirgan, Pelton J, Christopher Regan, Susan Vrahoretis, Michael Waters, Blake Welling Division of Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery and Waste Programs, NRC/NMSS/DREFS, Division of Operating Reactor Licensing, NRC/NRR/DRO, NRC/NSIR/DPCP, NRC/NSIR/DPR, Division of Security Operations, NRC/OGC, Division of Operating Reactors |
| Poole J, NRR/DORL/LPL1 | |
| References | |
| Download: ML25013A196 (1) | |
Text
March 4, 2025 MEMORANDUM TO:
Those on the Attached List FROM:
Laura Dudes, Acting Director
/RA/
Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Andrea L. Kock, Regional Administrator
/RA/
Region I
SUBJECT:
CHRISTOPHER M. CRANE CLEAN ENERGY CENTER / THREE MILE ISLAND NUCLEAR STATION, UNIT 1, RESTART PANEL CHARTER By letter dated November 4, 2024 (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System Accession No. ML24310A104), Constellation Energy Generation, LLC submitted a letter to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission outlining a proposed regulatory path for the reauthorization of power operations at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Station, Unit 1 (TMI-1). By letter dated January 13, 2025 (ML25013A311), the licensee submitted an amendment request to change the name of this facility to the Christopher M. Crane Clean Energy Center (CCEC). The purpose of this memorandum is to establish the CCEC Restart Panel (Crane Restart Panel) and to provide the associated charter. The enclosed charter defines the responsibilities for the Crane Restart Panel as it relates to the licensing actions, exemptions, technical issues, and inspections required for TMI-1 to resume commercial operation. The Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation and Regional Administrator, Region I shall have the authority to make mutually agreed revisions to the Crane Restart Panel Charter.
Docket No.05-289
Enclosure:
Christopher M. Crane Clean Energy Center Restart Panel Charter CONTACT: Justin C. Poole, NRR/DORL 301-415-2048
Enclosure CHRISTOPHER M. CRANE CLEAN ENERGY CENTER RESTART PANEL CHARTER This charter defines the responsibilities for the Christopher M. Crane Clean Energy Center (CCEC) Restart Panel (Crane Restart Panel), as it relates to inspection and licensing activities for CCEC until commercial operation resumes. The Crane Restart Panel will ensure that U.S Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC or Commission) staff conducts its licensing and regulatory activities in a manner that protects public health and safety and advances the nations common defense and security by enabling the safe and secure use and deployment of civilian nuclear energy technologies and radioactive materials through efficient and reliable licensing, oversight, and regulation for the benefit of society and the environment.
The Crane Restart Panel is an assessment and oversight group chaired by the members listed below.
Co-Chairs:
Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation (NRR) Director/Deputy Director, Division of Reactor Oversight (DRO)
NRR Director/Deputy Director, Division of Operating Reactor Licensing (DORL)
Region I Director/Deputy Director, Division of Operating Reactor Safety (DORS)
To oversee project completion, other NRC offices and divisions, as listed below, will participate in the Crane Restart Panel, as necessary:
Members:
Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response (NSIR) o Director/Deputy Director, Division of Physical and Cyber Security Policy (DPCP) o Director/Deputy Director, Division of Preparedness and Response (DPR) o Director/Deputy Director, Division of Security Operations (DSO)
Office of the General Counsel (OGC)
Office of Nuclear Materials Safety and Safeguards (NMSS) o Director/Deputy Director, Division of Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery, and Waste Programs (DUWP) o Director/Deputy Director, Division of Rulemaking, Environmental, and Financial Support (REFS)
For each of the membership positions, the members may delegate attendance and participation at Crane Restart Panel meetings. Designees shall be empowered to act for the members and to allocate resources. The Crane Restart Panel is authorized to make decisions when a quorum exists. A quorum shall be defined as consisting of two co-chairs and two other members (or their alternates) present at a meeting. Staff from other offices/regions may assist the Crane Restart Panel in its activities.
The Crane Restart Panel serves as the focal point for project status and for coordination among Region I, NRR, NSIR, NMSS, OGC, and the Office of Public Affairs (OPA). In addition, the Crane Restart Panel facilitates communications with the Commission, the Executive Director for Operations and its office direct reports, the licensee, and other external stakeholders.
OBJECTIVES The Crane Restart Panels primary objective is to proactively identify and promptly resolve any licensing, inspection, or regulatory challenges that concern the CCEC restart. To accomplish this objective, the Crane Restart Panel provides high-level assessments, coordination, oversight, and management direction of NRC activities associated with the licensing, to include environmental review, inspection, testing, and restart operations of CCEC. The Crane Restart Panel should ensure that risk insights are considered up front in order to ensure the agencys resources are focused on significant items and that appropriate visibility of significant issues is maintained to enable the panel to adjust activities as needed to remain focused on issues of the greatest importance. Each of the NRC offices and associated staff retains responsibility for the activities related to licensing, inspection, and assessment of CCEC under their purview.
From a licensing perspective, the Crane Restart Panels early focus will be on identifying the regulatory reviews and approvals that are necessary to enable the return of the plant to operation and placing them in the appropriate sequence to facilitate implementation and oversight of licensee programs needed to prepare the plant for return to operation (e.g., quality assurance), without restoring requirements sooner than necessary (e.g., operating reactor security and emergency preparedness) and inadvertently putting the licensee into non-compliance. If approved, the sequence will support compliance with applicable requirements for transition from decommissioning to operations.
From an oversight perspective, the Crane Restart Panel will ensure that Region I, NRR, NMSS, and NSIR determine and provide adequate and efficient monitoring of those conditions that would need to be observed prior to the plant exiting decommissioning and returning to operating status.
The Crane Restart Panel will ensure the review of the emergency preparedness program is properly coordinated with all stakeholders (including FEMA), and that all applicable regulatory requirements for onsite and offsite exercises are met prior to returning the plant to an operating status.
The Crane Restart Panel reports to the Director of NRR and the Regional Administrator for Region I. This includes but is not limited to periodic updates, information on license reviews, inspections, operator licensing, and restart activities. The updates will also include the status of hearings, allegations, inspection issues, and licensing activities concerning the project, as applicable. The Director of NRR, Regional Administrator for Region I, and Crane Restart Panel co-chairs will determine the frequency of the updates.
SCOPE OF ACTIVITIES The Crane Restart Panel meets its objectives by prioritizing resource management, project planning and execution, communications, and oversight.
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT The Crane Restart Panel facilitates resource prioritization across organizational boundaries to meet inspection and licensing objectives as needed, including resources for the following:
Inspection Licensing Return to Reactor Oversight Process The Crane Restart Panel will provide an initial estimate and then track and periodically report a summary of resources expended for various efforts (guidance/program development, licensing, oversight, etc.). In this report, the Crane Restart Panel will identify challenges and efficiencies as the project progresses. This data will be used to adjust resources as needed.
PROJECT PLANNING AND EXECUTION The Crane Restart Panel provides oversight for overall project planning among the NRC offices participating in oversight, licensing, and restart activities. The scope of the Crane Restart Panel activities in this area includes the following:
Identify and determine the necessary licensing activities, to include environmental review, and inspections and ensure that they are conducted in a risk-informed, timely manner and integrated with the licensees schedule to support agency decision-making regarding restart.
Ensure that Project Leads from each of the responsible offices are established and have the authority to commit the organizations resources to meet due dates.
Facilitate expedited changes to inspection support documents (e.g.,
procedures, inspection planning documents) as needed, to support timely inspection activities.
Identify for resolution, by the appropriate office, any inspection, licensing, and restart challenges before they unnecessarily impact project schedules.
Identify areas for which new regulatory approaches or guidance are needed.
COMMUNICATIONS The Crane Restart Panel serves as the focal point for project status and coordination among the NRCs regional and headquarters offices, including periodic status briefings to the Director of NRR and the Regional Administrator for Region I. The scope of Crane Restart Panel communication activities includes the following:
Maintain a communication plan with input from each of the offices.
Oversee plan implementation to ensure key stakeholders and Tribal nations, including the State of Pennsylvania, are informed of the review status. Coordinate with the OPA, the Office of Congressional Affairs (OCA), and OGC.
Maintain and periodically issue talking points on the status of the CCEC project for use in senior NRC management briefings, bringing attention to special issues, as necessary.
Communicate status of NRC activities, including licensing and technical issues that could impact the project timeline, to the Commission, NRC management, and other stakeholders, as appropriate.
Conduct periodic meetings with the licensee to discuss progress of inspection, licensing actions, and restart activities.
Elevate promptly any issues that require NRC office level (or above) engagement with licensee management.
Ensure effective coordination among NRR, Region I, NMSS, NSIR, OGC, OPA, and OCA.
Conduct periodic public meetings with external stakeholders, as appropriate, for effectiveness, openness, and transparency Ensure that meeting summaries are provided, commitments are tracked, and organizations are accountable for assigned actions.
OVERSIGHT The scope of Crane Restart Panel activities in oversight includes the following:
Maintain cognizance of the restart activities and conduct periodic meetings among Crane Restart Panel members to assess ongoing NRC inspections and to resolve technical and regulatory issues that may arise.
This includes oversight of CCEC licensee performance to coordinate activities that affect the collocated Three Mile Island Nuclear Station, Unit 2 facility undergoing decommissioning.
Oversee coordination of safety, security, and emergency planning interfaces and ensure that issues in these areas are communicated to affected NRC staff.
Maintain cognizance of inspection performance and associated metrics (technical assistance requests, violations, allegations).
Identify issues that affect any of these oversight functions and facilitate their timely resolution.
Provide support to the hearing process.
CRANE RESTART PANEL MEETING FREQUENCY The Crane Restart Panel will be in effect until the NRC reaches decisions on all of the licensing actions, exemptions, technical issues, and inspections required for CCEC to resume commercial operation or until a point mutually agreed upon by the Director of NRR and the Regional Administrator for Region I.
ESTIMATED NUMBER AND FREQUENCY OF PUBLIC MEETINGS Within the first 6 months of calendar year 2025, the Crane Restart Panel will hold public meetings with the licensee to discuss the status of the restart program, significant inspection and licensing issues, and the transition to operations. These meetings will continue as decided by the Crane Restart Panel considering pending activities and stakeholder interest but should occur about every 6 months.
OUTCOMES The licensing actions reviewed, and inspections conducted, associated with the review of the CCEC restart effort will be dispositioned in accordance with the appropriate processes. In addition, the Crane Restart Panel will provide a final letter to the Director of NRR and Regional Administrator for Region I summarizing the efforts of the Crane Restart Panel, outcomes of the panels activities, resources expended, and providing recommendations for path forward.
DOCUMENTATION The Crane Restart Panel shall designate a repository of information in addition to the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System where panel members and staff will collaborate and documentation will be maintained for knowledge management purposes. An NRC public webpage will be updated with applicable oversight information associated with the Crane Restart Panel.
REFERENCES https://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/reactors/tmi1/ccec.html
ATTACHMENT MEMORANDUM TO THOSE ON THE ATTACHED LIST Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation Russell Felts, Director, Division of Reactor Oversight Phil McKenna, Deputy Director, Division of Reactor Oversight Jamie Pelton, Acting Director, Division of Operating Reactor Licensing Region I Blake Welling, Director, Division of Operating Reactor Safety Ray McKinley, Deputy Director, Division of Operating Reactor Safety Office of Nuclear Security and Incident Response John McKirgan, Director, Division of Physical and Cyber Security Policy Michael Waters, Acting Director, Division of Preparedness and Response Tara Inverso, Director, Division of Security Operations Office of Nuclear Materials Safety and Safeguards Jane Marshall, Director, Division of Decommissioning, Uranium Recovery, and Waste Programs Christopher Regan, Director, Division of Rulemaking, Environmental, and Financial Support Office of the General Counsel Susan Vrahoretis, Assistant General Counsel for Reactor Programs
ML25013A196 NRR-106 OFFICE NRR/DORL/LPL3/PM NRR/DORL/LPL3/LA NRR/DORL/LPL3/BC NRR/DORL/D (A)
NAME JPoole SRohrer IBerrios JPelton DATE 01/10/2025 01/13/2025 01/15/2025 01/21/2025 OFFICE NRR/DRO/D RI/DORS/D NSIR/DPCP/D NSIR/DPR/D (A)
NAME RFelts BWelling (RMcKinley for)
JMcKirgan MWaters DATE 01/16/2025 01/21/2025 01/22/2025 01/22/2025 OFFICE NSIR/DSO/D NMSS/DUWP/D NMSS/REFS/D OGC-NLO NAME TInverso JMarshall CRegan SVrahoretis DATE 01/16/2025 01/23/2025 01/22/2025 02/20/2025 OFFICE NRR/D (A)
RI/RA NAME LDudes AKock DATE 03/03/2025 03/04/2025