[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 131 (Tuesday, July 9, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 56437-56438]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-14953]


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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

[Docket No. 50-255; NRC-2024-0123]


Holtec Palisades, LLC; Holtec Decommissioning International, LLC; 
Palisades Nuclear Plant; Petition

AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: 10 CFR 2.206 request; receipt.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is giving notice 
that by petition dated December 5, 2023, Beyond Nuclear, Michigan State 
Energy Future, and Don't Waste Michigan (the petitioners) filed a 
petition to intervene and a request for hearing on a proceeding to 
exempt the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant (Palisades) from certain 
requirements in NRC regulations. In denying the request for hearing, 
the Commission referred Contention 2 of the request, regarding the 
misuse of decommissioning funds, to the enforcement petition process 
under NRC regulations. The petitioner's requests are included in the 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.

DATES: July 9, 2024.

ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2024-0123 when contacting the 
NRC about the availability of information regarding this document. You 
may obtain publicly available information related to this document 
using any of the following methods:
     Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://www.regulations.gov and search for Docket ID NRC-2024-0123. Address 
questions about Docket IDs in Regulations.gov to Stacy Schumann; 
telephone: 301-415-0624; email: [email protected]. For technical 
questions, contact the individual listed in the FOR FURTHER INFORMATION 
CONTACT section of this document.
     NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System 
(ADAMS): You may obtain publicly available documents online in the 
ADAMS Public Documents collection at https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html. To begin the search, select ``Begin Web-based ADAMS 
Search.'' For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRC's Public 
Document Room (PDR) reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, at 301-415-4737, 
or by email to [email protected]. The ADAMS accession number for 
each document referenced (if it is available in ADAMS) is provided the 
first time that it is mentioned in this document.
     NRC's PDR: The PDR, where you may examine and order copies 
of publicly available documents, is open by appointment. To make an 
appointment to visit the PDR, please send an email to 
[email protected] or call 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, between 8 
a.m. and 4 p.m. eastern time (ET), Monday through Friday, except 
Federal holidays.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: James S. Kim, Office of Nuclear 
Reactor Regulation, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 
20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-4125; email: [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On September 28, 2023, Holtec 
Decommissioning International, LLC (Holtec), on behalf of Holtec 
Palisades, LLC, submitted a request (ADAMS Accession No. ML23271A140) 
to exempt the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant (Palisades) from certain 
requirements in section 50.82 of title 10 of the Code of Federal 
Regulations (10 CFR), ``Termination of license.'' On December 5, 2023, 
the petitioners filed a petition to intervene and a request for hearing 
on this exemption proceeding (ADAMS Accession No. ML23339A192). In 
denying the request for hearing (ADAMS Accession No. ML23352A325), the 
Commission referred Contention 2 of the request, regarding the misuse 
of decommissioning funds, to the enforcement petition process under 10 
CFR 2.206, ``Requests for action under this subpart.''
    The underlying concern in Contention 2 of the December 5, 2023, 
request is that ``Holtec misused the decommissioning trust fund (DTF) 
to keep Palisades in a status to restart the reactor, rather than to 
decommission the plant.'' The petitioners cited 10 CFR 50.82(a)(8) 
regarding appropriate uses of the DTF. Specifically, the petition to 
intervene asserted that:
    1. Holtec expended $44 million from the Palisades DTF from June 28 
to December 31, 2022 (ADAMS Accession No. ML23090A140).
    2. Holtec continued improper utilization of Palisades DTF from 
December 31, 2022, to present.
    The NRC staff assembled a Petition Review Board (PRB) in accordance 
with NRC Management Directive (MD) 8.11, ``Review Process for 10 CFR 
2.206 Petitions,'' and its associated Directive Handbook 8.11, Section 
III (ADAMS Accession No. ML18296A043). On February 29, 2024 (ADAMS 
Accession No. ML24061A014), the petition manager informed the 
petitioners that the PRB's initial assessment was to not accept the 
petition for review. The PRB's position was that the petition did not 
meet the MD 8.11 criteria for

[[Page 56438]]

accepting petitions under 10 CFR 2.206 because the issues raised 
regarding Holtec's use of the Palisades DTF in 2022 had already been 
addressed through the NRC's inspection and enforcement process.
    In August and November 2023 (ADAMS Accession No. ML23276B452 and 
ADAMS Accession No. ML24045A147, respectively), the NRC completed 
inspections that addressed, in part, the use of the Palisades DTF. As a 
result of these inspections, the NRC identified several instances, 
totaling just over $57,000, in which the licensee used the Palisades 
DTF to pay for activities not considered legitimate decommissioning 
expenses per the definition in 10 CFR 50.2, ``Definitions.''
    The NRC confirmed that the unauthorized reimbursements from the 
Palisades DTF were the result of inadvertent oversights and/or 
inattention to detail in the coding associated with the billing for 
various projects and community donations. The licensee has implemented 
several process revisions to address order coding modification issues/
errors, as well as training to eliminate these issues from future DTF 
expenditures. In February 2024, the NRC issued Holtec a Severity Level 
IV Non-Cited Violation to address the illegitimate use of 
decommissioning funds at Palisades (ADAMS Accession No. ML24045A147).
    On February 29, 2024, along with the initial assessment, the 
petition manager offered the petitioners an opportunity to address the 
PRB in a public meeting. This meeting was held on April 10, 2024. The 
transcript of that meeting is publicly available in ADAMS under 
Accession No. ML24114A016 and is considered a supplement to the 
petition. During the April 10, 2024, meeting, the petitioners discussed 
DTF expenditures of $120 million noted in the 2023 Decommissioning 
Funding Status Report for Palisades, which was submitted to the NRC on 
March 29, 2024 (ADAMS Accession No. ML24089A117). The petitioners also 
raised concerns about whether the $120 million was properly used for 
decommissioning expenditures in accordance with the current NRC 
requirements and guidance.
    Following the April 10, 2024, public meeting, the PRB met to 
consider what had been presented during the meeting. The PRB found that 
the issues regarding use of the Palisades DTF in 2022 have been 
addressed through the inspection and enforcement process, as previously 
mentioned in this notice. Therefore, the PRB is not accepting those 
issues into the 10 CFR 2.206 process. The concerns the petitioners 
raised at the public meeting regarding the recently submitted 2023 
expenditure report for Palisades involve new information that has not 
yet been fully considered by the NRC. Therefore, in accordance with MD 
8.11, Section III.C, the PRB is accepting that portion of the 
petitioner's concern into the 10 CFR 2.206 process for further review. 
However, the PRB is holding the petition review in abeyance until the 
NRC's review of the 2023 expenditure report for Palisades is complete, 
as it is relevant to the decision on the 10 CFR 2.206 petition.

    Dated: July 2, 2024.

    For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Michael King,
Deputy Office Director, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
[FR Doc. 2024-14953 Filed 7-8-24; 8:45 am]
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