[Federal Register Volume 90, Number 20 (Friday, January 31, 2025)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8721-8724]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2025-01997]
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NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION
[Docket No. 50-255; NRC-2024-0076]
Holtec Decommissioning International, LLC and Holtec Palisades,
LLC; Palisades Nuclear Plant; Draft Environmental Assessment and Draft
Finding of No Significant Impact
AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Request for comment.
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SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing for
public comment a draft environmental assessment (EA) and draft finding
of no significant impact (FONSI) evaluating the environmental impacts
from proposed Federal actions related to reauthorizing power operations
at the Palisades Nuclear Plant (Palisades). Specifically, the NRC is
considering an exemption request, a license transfer request, and
license amendment requests (LARs) to support reauthorizing power
operation under the NRC license. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE),
Loan Programs Office (LPO), is a cooperating agency on the draft EA.
DOE LPO's proposed action is to provide Federal financial support (a
loan guarantee) for refueling and resumption of power generation
activities at Palisades.
DATES: Submit comments by March 3, 2025. Comments received after this
date will be considered if it is practical to do so, but the NRC is
able to ensure consideration only for comments received on or before
this date.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any of the following methods;
however, the NRC encourages electronic comment submission through the
Federal rulemaking website:
Federal rulemaking website: Go to https://regulations.gov
and search for Docket ID NRC-2024-0076. Address questions about Docket
IDs in Regulations.gov to Stacy Schumann; telephone: 301-415-0624;
email: [email protected]. For technical questions, contact the
individuals listed in the For Further Information Contact section of
this document.
Email: Comments may be submitted to the NRC electronically
using the email address: [email protected].
Mail comments to: Office of Administration, Mail Stop:
TWFN-7-A60M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-
0001, ATTN: Program Management, Announcements and Editing Staff.
For additional direction on obtaining information and submitting
comments, see ``Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments'' in the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Mary Richmond, telephone: 301-415-
7218; email: [email protected] and Laura Willingham, telephone:
301-415-0857; email: [email protected]. Both are staff of the
Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Obtaining Information and Submitting Comments
A. Obtaining Information
Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2024-0076 when contacting the NRC
about the availability of information for this action. You may obtain
publicly available information related to this action by any of the
following methods:
Federal Rulemaking Website: Go to https://regulations.gov
and search for Docket ID NRC-2024-0076.
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]. For the convenience of the reader,
instructions about obtaining materials referenced in this document are
provided in the ``Availability of Documents'' section.
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.
Public Library: A copy of the draft EA and draft FONSI is
available for public review at the following public library locations:
South Haven Memorial Library, 314 Broadway Street, South Haven, MI
49090 and St. Joseph/Maud Preston Palenske Memorial Library, 500 Market
Street, St. Joseph, MI 49085.
NRC Public Project Website: The draft EA and draft FONSI
along with information regarding Palisades, including licensing,
operation, decommissioning, and potential restart is available at
https://www.nrc.gov/info-finder/reactors/pali.html.
B. Submitting Comments
The NRC encourages electronic comment submission through any of the
methods outlined in the ADDRESSES section of this document. Please
include Docket ID NRC-2024-0076 in your comment submission.
The NRC cautions you not to include identifying or contact
information that you do not want to be publicly disclosed in your
comment submission. The NRC will post all comment submissions at
https://www.regulations.gov as well as enter the comment submissions
into ADAMS. The NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to
remove identifying or contact information.
If you are requesting or aggregating comments from other persons
for submission to the NRC, then you should inform those persons not to
include identifying or contact information that they do not want to be
publicly disclosed in their comment submission. Your request should
state that the NRC does not routinely edit comment submissions to
remove such information before making the comment submissions available
to the public or entering the comment into ADAMS.
II. Introduction
Palisades consists of a single pressurized-water reactor designed
by Combustion Engineering (with a turbine-generator designed by
Westinghouse) and is located in Covert Township, Michigan, along the
shoreline of Lake Michigan. Originally licensed for operation on March
24, 1971, the NRC issued a renewed facility operating license (RFOL)
for Palisades on January 17, 2007, with the renewed operating license
term expiring on March 24, 2031.
After more than 40 years of commercial operation, Palisades
permanently ceased operations on May 20, 2022. On June 13, 2022,
Entergy Nuclear Operations, Inc., the licensee who operated the
facility prior to
[[Page 8722]]
transfer of the Palisades license to Holtec Decommissioning
International, LLC (HDI) and Holtec Palisades, LLC, submitted the
certifications for permanent cessation of operations and permanent
removal of fuel from the reactor vessel in accordance with paragraph
50.82(a)(1) of title 10 of the Code of Federal Regulations (10 CFR).
When the NRC docketed the certifications, Palisades' RFOL No. DPR-20 no
longer authorized operation of the reactor, or emplacement or retention
of fuel into the reactor vessel, as provided by 10 CFR 50.82(a)(2).
To return Palisades to power operations, HDI has submitted (1) a
request for an exemption from the requirement in 10 CFR 50.82(a)(2)
that prohibits operation of the Palisades reactor, or emplacement or
retention of fuel into the reactor vessel; (2) a request for a license
transfer from HDI (currently responsible for decommissioning activities
at Palisades) to Palisades Energy, LLC (which would be authorized to
operate the reactor); and (3) four LARs. These requests, along with the
NRC determinations that these requests were acceptable for review, are
listed in Section III of this notice. If all the requests are granted,
Palisades Energy, LLC, would be allowed to place fuel into the reactor
vessel and resume power operations through March 24, 2031, which is the
end of the renewed facility operating license term under Palisades RFOL
No. DPR-20.
Two notices of opportunity to request a hearing and petition for
leave to intervene (89 FR 64486 and 89 FR 64493) were published in the
Federal Register on August 7, 2024. The first opportunity covered four
LARs from HDI, filed between December 2023 and May 2024, that would
restore aspects of the Palisades license to those required for an
operating reactor. The second opportunity covered a December 6, 2023,
request to transfer operating authority under the Palisades license
from HDI to Palisades Energy, LLC.
The NRC staff has prepared a draft EA and draft FONSI documenting
its environmental review of the potential licensing and regulatory
approvals. Based on the environmental review, the NRC has made a
preliminary determination that the proposed actions would not
significantly affect the quality of the human environment. Therefore,
the NRC staff has made a preliminary determination that it will not
prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) and that a draft FONSI
appears warranted.
The staff will consider comments on the draft EA and draft FONSI
over a 30-day public comment period from Federal, State, local, and
Tribal officials, and members of the public. After consideration of
these public comments, the NRC staff will make a final determination as
to whether preparation of an EIS is necessary or whether a FONSI can be
issued for the licensing and regulatory approvals for Palisades.
The environmental review included fulfillment of the NRC
obligations related to Section 106 of the National Historic
Preservation Act (NHPA) of 1966, as amended, (54 U.S.C. 300101, et
seq.). The regulations in 36 CFR 800.8, ``Coordination with the
National Environmental Policy Act,'' allow agencies to use their
National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321, et seq.)
process to fulfill the requirements of Section 106 of the NHPA.
Therefore, pursuant to 36 CFR 800.8(c), the NRC used its process for
the preparation of the EA on the proposed actions to comply with
Section 106 of the NHPA in lieu of the procedures set forth at 36 CFR
800.3 through 800.6.
III. Summary of Draft Environmental Assessment
Description of the Proposed Action and Need
The NRC's proposed actions are decisions on whether to grant or
deny Holtec's interdependent, connected licensing and regulatory
requests that, if approved, would collectively support reauthorizing
power operations and refueling of the reactor under the existing
Palisades' RFOL.
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Document description ADAMS accession No.
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Request for Exemption from Certain Termination of ML23271A140; ML23291A440.
License Requirements of 10CFR 50.82, dated September
28, 2023; Acceptance Review dated November 3, 2023.
Application for Order Consenting to Transfer of Control ML23340A161; ML24012A242.
of License and Approving Conforming License
Amendments, dated December 6, 2023; Acceptance Review
dated January 16, 2024.
Request to Revise Renewed Facility Operating License ML23348A148; ML24022A117.
and Permanently Defueled Technical Specifications to
Support Resumption of Power Operations, dated December
14, 2023; Acceptance Review dated January 23, 2024.
Request to Revise Selected Permanently Defueled ML24040A089; ML24060A221.
Technical Specifications Technical Specifications to
Support Resumption of Power Operations, dated February
9, 2024; Acceptance Review dated March 18, 2024.
Request to Revise the Palisades Emergency Plan to ML24122C666; ML24141A119.
Support Resumption of Power Operations, dated May 1,
2024; Acceptance Review dated May 23, 2024.
Request to Approve the Biasi Critical Heat Flux ML24145A145; ML24169A434.
Correlation for Use with the Palisades Main Steam Line
Break Analysis, dated May 24, 2024; Acceptance Review
dated June 18, 2024.
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The NRC's environmental review also encompasses any revisions or
supplements to these requests or other regulatory or licensing requests
submitted to the NRC that are necessary to reauthorize power operations
of Palisades.
The DOE LPO's Federal action is a decision on providing Federal
financial assistance for refueling and resumption of power generation
activities at Palisades, pursuant to Holtec's loan guarantee agreement
with DOE LPO that was issued pursuant to the Energy Policy Act (EPA) of
2005.
The need for the potential approval of the proposed NRC Federal
actions, collectively supporting the reauthorization of power
operations, is to provide an option that allows for baseload clean
energy power generation capability within the term of the Palisades'
RFOL to meet current system generating needs. Holtec cites the State of
Michigan's Public Acts of 2023, Act No. 235 (enrolled Senate Bill 271),
which establishes a clean energy standard for electric providers to
provide at least 80 percent clean energy by 2035 and 100 percent by
2040. Michigan's Act No. 235 defines clean energy as including a system
that ``Generates electricity or steam without emitting greenhouse gas,
including nuclear generation.''
The need for DOE's proposed action (Federal financial assistance in
the form of a loan guarantee), is to implement DOE's authority under
Title XVII of the EPA of 2005, which was reauthorized, amended, and
revised by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 to create the Energy
Infrastructure Reinvestment (EIR) Program (Section 1706). The purpose
of the EIR Program is to finance
[[Page 8723]]
projects and facilities in the United States that retool, repower,
repurpose, or replace energy infrastructure that has ceased operations
or to enable operating energy infrastructure to avoid, reduce, utilize,
or sequester air pollutants or anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse
gases (42 U.S.C. 16517(a)(2)).
Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action
In the draft EA, the NRC staff assessed the potential direct and
indirect environmental impacts from the proposed actions associated
with the following relevant resource areas: land use and visual
resources; meteorology and air quality; surface water resources;
groundwater resources and the geologic environment; ecological
resources (terrestrial and aquatic); historic and cultural resources;
socioeconomics; environmental justice; radiological and nonradiological
human health; waste management; uranium fuel cycle and transportation;
and postulated accidents. The NRC staff also considered decommissioning
impacts, the potential effects of climate change on its evaluation of
the environmental impacts of the proposed continued operation of
Palisades, and the cumulative effects from past, present, and
reasonably foreseeable future actions when combined with the proposed
action.
The NRC staff determined that the environmental impacts of the
proposed action would be NOT SIGNIFICANT for each potentially affected
environmental resource. In addition, the NRC staff determined that the
projected effects of climate change would not alter any of the impact
determinations described in the EA. Furthermore, the NRC staff found
that there would be no significant cumulative impact to any resource
area from the proposed action when added to other past, present, and
reasonably foreseeable actions.
Environmental Impacts of the Alternatives to the Proposed Action
The NRC staff considered a range of alternatives to the proposed
action and the environmental impacts of the alternatives as
appropriate. The NRC staff determined that there are no alternatives
that meet the need for the proposed action that would be
environmentally preferrable to the proposed action.
IV. Draft Finding of No Significant Impact
The proposed Federal actions before the NRC are whether to grant
requests for an exemption, a license transfer, and license amendments
to support reauthorizing Palisades for power operations through the
remainder of its licensing term (to March 24, 2031). The NRC staff has
conducted an environmental review of these actions and prepared a draft
EA. This draft FONSI incorporates by reference the draft EA summarized
in Section II of this notice and referenced in Section V of this
notice. Based on preliminary determinations in the draft EA that the
environmental impacts of the proposed actions would be NOT SIGNIFICANT
for each potentially affected resource area, the NRC staff is issuing a
draft determination that the proposed Federal actions would not
significantly affect the quality of the human environment. Therefore,
the NRC staff has made a draft determination that preparation of an EIS
is not required for the proposed Federal actions and that a draft FONSI
appears warranted.
This draft finding and the related environmental documents
referenced throughout the EA are available for public inspection as
discussed in the draft EA and Section I of this notice. The NRC's
staff's determination is tentative. Before making a final
determination, the NRC staff will consider comments received on the
draft EA and draft FONSI over a 30-day public comment period from
Federal, State, Tribal, and local officials, and members of the public.
Once the NRC staff makes a final determination, the NRC will publish
the final EA and final FONSI or proceed to prepare an EIS. At the
conclusion of the NRC environmental review, DOE LPO would publish a
separate Record of Decision or FONSI, as appropriate.
V. Availability of Documents
The documents listed in the following table are available to
interested persons through one or more of the following methods, as
indicated.
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Document description ADAMS accession No./ Federal Register notice
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Draft Environmental Assessment and Draft Finding of No ML24353A157.
Significant Impact for the Palisades Nuclear Plant
Reauthorization of Power Operations Project, dated January
31, 2025.
Correspondence to NRC from Holtec, Responses to Requests ML24278A027.
for Additional Information Regarding the Proposed
Reauthorization of Power Operations Under Renewed Facility
Operating License Number DPR-020, dated October 4, 2024.
Correspondence to NRC from Holtec, Responses to Requests ML24260A354.
for Confirmatory Information, dated September 12, 2024.
Correspondence to NRC from Holtec, Responses to Requests ML24319A053.
for Confirmatory Information, dated November 12, 2024.
Holtec Decommissioning International, LLC, and Holtec 89 FR 64486.
Palisades, LLC; Palisades Nuclear Plant; Applications for
Amendments to Renewed Facility Operating License Involving
Proposed No Significant Hazards Considerations and Order
Imposing Procedures for Access to Sensitive Unclassified
Non-Safeguards Information and Safeguards Information--
License amendment requests; opportunity to comment,
request a hearing, and petition for leave to intervene;
order, published August 7, 2024.
Holtec Decommissioning International, LLC, Holtec 89 FR 64493.
Palisades, LLC, and Palisades Energy, LLC; Palisades
Nuclear Plant and the Palisades Independent Spent Fuel
Storage Installation; Consideration of Approval of
Transfer of Licenses and Conforming Amendment-Application
for direct transfer of license; opportunity to comment,
request a hearing, and petition for leave to intervene,
published August 7, 2024.
Holtec Decommissioning International, LLC, and Holtec 89 FR 53659.
Palisades, LLC; Palisades Nuclear Plant; Notice of Intent
to Conduct Scoping Process and Prepare an Environmental
Assessment, published June 27, 2024.
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[[Page 8724]]
Dated: January 27, 2025.
For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Christopher M. Regan,
Director, Division of Rulemaking, Environmental, and Financial Support,
Office of Nuclear Material Safety, and Safeguards.
[FR Doc. 2025-01997 Filed 1-30-25; 8:45 am]
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