Holtec’s PSDAR and DCE for Palisades; NRC public comment meeting Sept. 22, in-person and virtual/teleconference

Holtec International’s Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report and Decommissioning Cost Estimate for the Palisades atomic reactor in Covert, Michigan, on the Lake Michigan shoreline, was published on December 23, 2020.

The document is 98 pages long. The PSDAR begins on page 1 of 98, while the DCE begins on page 48 of 98, on the PDF counter.

The document is posted here:

12 23 20 Palisades LTA PNP 2020-042 Palisades and BRP License Transfer Application 12-21-20 - Palisades and BRP License Transfer App 12 23 20 Palisades PSDAR - PSDAR-1

NRC is holding a public comment meeting on Thursday, September 22, 2022, re: the Holtec Palisades PSDAR and DCE. Members of the public can attend in person (at Lake Michigan College in South Haven, MI), or online/virtually-telephonically. See the NRC meeting notification for more details on how/where to attend in person, via computer, or by phone. Please attend in person or virtually online/via teleconference if you can, and please spread the word!

The timing and supposed reason for this NRC meeting is ironic and confusing, because on Friday, September 9, 2022, the Detroit News broke the story that rather than decommission Palisades, Holtec now plans to restart it for another several years, or longer, of high-risk operation. Holtec took over the Palisades license and site ownership through a bait and switch pretense of decommissioning the reactor, which the previous owner Entergy permanently shut down on May 20, 2022, after 51 years of ever more high-risk operation. Holtec took over the license and site ownership at Palisades on June 28, 2022, just over a month after Entergy shut the reactor for good, as was the two companies’ plan since the December 23, 2020 license transfer application (LTA), submitted to NRC and made publicly available at the same time as the PSDAR and DCE, above.

See the LTA, here:

Beyond Nuclear, along with Don’t Waste Michigan and Michigan Safe Energy Future, intervened against the Holtec takeover, raising health, environmental, safety and financial concerns, by a short 20-day post-Federal Register Notice deadline, on Feb. 24, 2021.

Environmental Law and Policy Center of Chicago, as well as the Office of the Attorney General of the State of Michigan, also intervened against the Holtec takeover, citing mostly financial concerns.

See the oppositional intervenors’ initial filings from Feb. 24, 2021, here.

The NRC then sat on the interventions for nearly a year and a half. In mid-July 2022, NRC rejected the Beyond Nuclear/Don’t Waste Michigan/Michigan Safe Energy Future, as well as the ELPC, interventions outright. NRC did admit the MI AG intervention for a hearing on the merits, a proceeding that continues. See the 141-page NRC MEMORANDUM AND ORDER, dated July 15, 2022, here.