ML25055A278
| ML25055A278 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Palisades  |
| Issue date: | 02/01/2025 |
| From: | Public Commenter Public Commenter |
| To: | NRC/NMSS/DREFS |
| NRC/NMSS/DREFS | |
| References | |
| 90FR8721 | |
| Download: ML25055A278 (4) | |
Text
From:
Mark Muhich <markmuhich0@gmail.com>
Sent:
Saturday, February 1, 2025 4:47 PM To:
PalisadesRestartEnvironmental Resource
Subject:
[External_Sender] Deny HOLTEC Permit to Restart Palisades NP HOLTEC is even less capable now of operating Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in Covert Michigan than it was in 2021 when it applied to decommission Palisades NP. Please see my comments in that case submitted as an intervenor.
HOLTEC has never decommissioned nor operated a nuclear power plant.
The very same issues that determined Consumers Power Company sale of Palisades NP to ENTERGY in 2012, namely extreme expense in maintaining Palisades NP: replacement of steam generators, replacement of the pressure vessel, moving highly radioactive waste from the Lake Michigan beach to higher ground totalling billions of dollars could not be justified financially.
Indeed, ENTERGY and HOLTEC agree with this assessment because they have made no attempt to perform any of these critical infrastructure improvements.
While NRC mandated that HOLTEC remove stored spent nuclear fuel from the beaches at Cape Cod for the Pilgrim NP, it has allowed HOLTEC to draw down the Palisades' decommissioning fund without making any improvements to the spent fuel storage tanks only several yards from Lake Michigan.
Indeed HOLTEC has created a unique business model: Drawing down Palisades decommissioning funds, while simultaneously receiving nearly a billion dollars from the State of Michigan and the U.S. government to restart it. All the while accomplishing nothing.
Palisades NP had outlived its safe operating life expectancy when it was first shut down in 2022. At that time HOLTEC had no intention, nor expertise to reopen Palisades. It neglected standard wet shut down procedures and abandoned the hundreds of miles of pipe and tubing in Palisades NP to the severe Michigan winters.
NRC should take an extreme precautionary approach to HOLTEC's unprecedented application to re-permit and restart a shuttered nuclear power plant. How brittle is the Palisades pressure vessel? How many steam generator tubes have been damaged by improper storage? When is HOLTEC going to move the spent fuel storage tanks from the beach on Lake Michigan to higher safer ground?
NRC must check and verify every single safety and operating system at Palisades, holding it to an even more rigorous standard than it would hold a new nuclear plant. If and when NRC fulfills its statutory obligation to insure the public's safety and the environment's protection, it will find HOLTEC's plan to restart Palisades to be meritless and will reject it.
Mark Muhich 10 Scharoun Drive Pulaski NY 13142 832 613 5127 markmuhich0@gmail.com Indeed
Federal Register Notice:
90FR8721 Comment Number:
2 Mail Envelope Properties (CADfWe+Zr2dQ1BOeJ0aOV8h=ATMpHESQixdsoBDWQfhDwuzzr=g)
Subject:
[External_Sender] Deny HOLTEC Permit to Restart Palisades NP Sent Date:
2/1/2025 4:46:34 PM Received Date:
2/1/2025 4:47:00 PM From:
Mark Muhich Created By:
markmuhich0@gmail.com Recipients:
"PalisadesRestartEnvironmental Resource" <PalisadesRestartEnvironmental.Resource@nrc.gov>
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