ML25280A014
| ML25280A014 | |
| Person / Time | |
|---|---|
| Site: | Palisades  |
| Issue date: | 10/03/2025 |
| From: | Marlayna Vaaler Doell Plant Licensing Branch III |
| To: | Schultheis M Palisades Energy |
| References | |
| EPID L-2025-LLE-0022 | |
| Download: ML25280A014 (1) | |
Text
From:
Marlayna Doell To:
Michael Schultheis Cc:
k.steffic@holtec.com; k.miller1@holtec.com; Justin Poole; Ilka Berrios; c.mackaman@holtec.com
Subject:
Request for Additional Information Re: Exemption from Requirements of 10 CFR 26.205, Fitness for Duty Programs - Work Hours (EPID L-2025-LLE-0022)
Date:
Friday, October 3, 2025 2:30:00 PM Attachments:
Final RAIs - Palisades Part 26 Exemption Request.pdf
- Mike, By letter dated August 12, 2025 (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Accession No. ML25224A206), the Palisades Energy LLC (Palisades) requested an exemption from Paragraphs 26.205(d)(3) and (d)(7) of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) to use the less restrictive work hour limitations described in 10CFR26.205(d)(4) for no more than 49 days beyond the end of the initial 60-day outage period to allow personnel to perform outage repair activities, restoration of safety-related equipment, and completion of the Palisades restart.
On September 11, 2025, 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 August 15 and October 3, 2025, the NRC and the licensee held a clarification call to discuss the upcoming submittal and the DRAFT RAIs.During the October 3, 2025, call, a date of October 15, 2025, was agreed upon to respond to the RAIs.The attached is the final version of the RAIs. These RAIs will be put in ADAMS as a publicly available document.
- Thanks, Marlayna Marlayna Vaaler Doell
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Decommissioning Project Manager U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission NRR/DORL/LPL3 Phone: 301.415.3178 Mobile: 440.668.7399 E-mail: marlayna.doell@nrc.gov Office Location: Fulltime Telework from Kingsport, Tennessee!
Mail Stop: T-5A10
1 REQUEST FOR CONFIRMATORY INFORMATION AND REQUEST FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION PALISADES NUCLEAR PLANT DOCKET NO. 50-255 EXEMPTION REQUEST RELATED TO 10 CFR PART 26 WORK HOURS By letter dated August 12, 2025 (Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS) Accession No. ML25224A206), the Palisades Energy LLC (Palisades) requested an exemption from Paragraphs 26.205(d)(3) and (d)(7) of Title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR) to use the less restrictive work hour limitations described in 10 CFR 26.205(d)(4) for no more than 49 days beyond the end of the initial 60-day outage period to allow personnel to perform outage repair activities, restoration of safety-related equipment, and completion of the Palisades restart.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (Commission, NRC) staff is reviewing your submittal and has identified areas where additional information is needed to complete its review.
Request for Confirmation of Information:
- 1. Regarding the proposed exemption, the NRC staffs understanding of Palisades request is as follows:
The proposed exemption applies to all personnel performing the duties described in the exemption. These personnel include all individuals identified in 10 CFR 26.4(a)(1) through (a)(5).
Confirm that the NRC staffs understanding, as described above, is correct regarding the exemption request applicability to personnel.
- 2. Regarding the proposed exemption, the licensee referenced both 10 CFR 26.205(d)(3) and 10 CFR 26.205(d)(7). Confirm the work hour counting system Palisades plans to use as specified in 10 CFR 26.205(d)(8).
- 3. Regarding the applicable regulations and guidance cited in the exemption, the NRC staffs understanding of Palisades request is as follows:
Palisades intended to cite 10 CFR 26.205(d)(7) as:
- i. 10 CFR 26.205(d)(7) provides the following requirements:
- 1. Licensees may, as an alternative to complying with the minimum days off requirements in § 26.205(d)(3), comply with the requirements for maximum average work hours in this paragraph.
- 2. (I) Individuals may not work more than a weekly average of 54 hours6.25e-4 days <br />0.015 hours <br />8.928571e-5 weeks <br />2.0547e-5 months <br />, calculated using an averaging period of up to six (6) weeks, which
2 advances by 7 consecutive calendar days at the finish of every averaging period.
- 3. (II) For purposes of this section, when an individuals work shift starts at the end of a calendar day and concludes during the next calendar day, the licensee shall either consider the hours worked during that entire shift as if they were all worked on the day the shift started, or attribute the hours to the calendar days on which the hours were actually worked.
- 4. (III) Each licensee shall state, in its FFD policy and procedures required by § 26.27 and § 26.203(a) and (b), the work hour counting system in § 26.205(d)(7)(ii) the licensee is using.
Palisades intended to include a header for 10 CFR 26.205(d)(4) which provides requirements for work hour controls during the first 60 days of a unit outage.
Palisades intended to cite 10 CFR 26.205(d)(5), which provides requirements for security personnel during planned unit outages, because the exemption request does include security personnel as described in 10 CFR 26.4(a)(5).
Confirm that the NRC staffs understanding, as described above, is correct regarding the exemption request, as it applies to the applicable regulations and guidance.
Request for Additional Information:
- 1. Section 26.9 of 10 CFR states, in part, that the Commission may grant an exemption from the requirements in 10 CFR Part 26 as it determines are authorized by law and will not endanger life or property or the common defense and security, and are otherwise in the public interest.
Section 26.23(e) of 10 CFR states, in part, that Fitness-for-duty programs must provide reasonable assurance that the effects of fatigue and degraded alertness on individuals' abilities to safely and competently perform their duties are managed commensurate with maintaining public health and safety.
Section V of the submittal proposes the following mitigating action to provide adequate rest interval:
The licensees shall ensure that individuals have, at a minimum, the rest breaks specified in this paragraph. For the purposes of this subpart 26.205(d)(2), a break is defined as an interval of time that falls between successive work
- periods, Given that the proposed exemption requests an additional 49-day period where the less restrictive work hour limitations will be utilized which directly follows the initial 60-day outage period with the same less restrictive limitations, extension of the outage period from 60 days to 109 could substantively increase the potential for cumulative fatigue and fatigue-related personnel errors.
3 As indicated in the Statements of Consideration for Part 26 on the Federal Register, the Commission elaborated on the objective of 10 CFR 26.205(d)(4) which is to ensure that individuals performing the duties described in 10 CFR 26.4(a)(1) through (a)(4) have sufficient periodic long-duration breaks to prevent cumulative fatigue from degrading their ability to safely and competently perform their duties.
Furthermore, in setting the 60-day period, the NRC considered that by the end of the 60-day period, individuals performing the duties in 10 CFR 26.4(a)(1) through (a)(4) would have missed 17 normally scheduled days off which represents a 60% reduction in the time available to recover and prevent cumulative fatigue. In addition to 10 CFR 26.4(a)(1)-(a)(4),
control of work hours for security personnel performing the duties described in § 26.4(a)(5) must be more stringent due to the unique risks their duties carry including use of deadly force, lack of peer checks, isolated social interaction, fixed positions, duties that comprise mostly of vigilance tasks, and lack of backup systems to prevent the consequences of an error caused by fatigue.
Therefore, based on the docketed information, the staff is unable to determine if the proposed mitigating actions provide reasonable assurance of adequate protection of public health and safety.
Provide additional details that address the following:
- a. Explain how the proposed mitigating actions will effectively manage and prevent cumulative fatigue over the full 109-day period of consecutive less restrictive work hour controls. Describe how these actions are commensurate with the extended application of outage work hour provisions under 10 CFR 26.205(d), and how they ensure reasonable assurance of fitness for duty in accordance with 10 CFR 26.23(e).
- b. Explain how cumulative fatigue will be mitigated between the 60-day outage period and the proposed 49-day exemption period without an adequate rest and reset period between outages as described in Regulatory Guide 5.73, Fatigue Management for Nuclear Power Plant Personnel (ML083450028), Appendix B Comment 11 and NEI 06-11, Revision 1, Section 8.3. Please include any additional measures that will be taken to mitigate fatigue.
- c. Provide a description of the 30-day period prior to the start of the outage period that includes the work hour controls employed and average number of work hours for each group identified in the exemption request.
- d. Provide work schedules for each group identified in the exemption request from August 25, 2025 through October 9, 2025. For example, see precedent from Watts Bar Unit 2 (ML22117A195).