Holtec International this month (Jan. 14) got a “hold on there, Sparky” warning from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Holtec officials met with NRC staff to discuss plans for dealing with the steam generator problems at the shuttered Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan before Holtec can restart the 805-MW Combustion Engineering pressurized water reactor that went out of service in May 2022.
Holtec and restart contractor Framatom presented an aggressive restart plan to the NRC. It relies on sleeving the plant’s two steam generators that convert the hot radioactive water from the reactor into steam to turn the steam turbine generator, making electricity. Holtec said it wants to get the machine working again this fall, which requires an NRC decision by August and beginning restart in September.
That didn’t sit well with the NRC engineers. Sleeving the 30-year-old steam generators is faster and far less expensive than replacing them. Holtec said there is precedent for sleeves on the steam generator tubes, covering up the stress corrosion cracks that have been a persistent problem with steam generators in pressurized water reactors.
“This is a very aggressive schedule. Even though you’re following a precedent, it’s not exactly a precedent.” — NRC branch chief Steve Bloom
According to reporters who covered the meeting remotely, Steve Bloom, chief of the NRC branch that looks closely at steam generator problems, said, “This is a very aggressive schedule. Even though you’re following a precedent, it’s not exactly a precedent. There are different metals. We may need to visit Framatome and see the [Palisades] site.”
“We need everything you got from the very beginning and, I’ll say this out loud, we may need to visit the different sites and see the different testing and different materials, and all of that is going to add to a schedule that’s already very aggressive.”
Toledo, Ohio’s The Blade reported, some local residents who participated in the online meeting raised concerns that Holtec didn’t take more conventional actions to protect steam generator tubes during long lasting dry conditions, which the Electric Power Research Institute recommends.
The newspaper reported that former Palisades engineer and retired nuclear industry executive Alan Blind in an interview said “the lack of a wet chemical process for two years likely damaged enough tubes that Holtec will need to purchase two new steam generators, which he said could delay restart by two years. Mr. Klein said during the meeting, though, that the sleeving process is worth being examined if the company elects to submit its application for a license amendment.”
Last December, the NRC appointed two resident inspectors for the Palisades restart project. The earlier resident inspectors left the site after it was shut down in anticipation of decommissioning. NRC’s policy is that each operating nuclear generating plant has at least two on-site inspectors to assure compliance with the agency’s safety rules.
In a news release, the NRC said, “The NRC continues to assess Holtec’s readiness to potentially restart the plant, including having NRC inspectors onsite to monitor work projects, interact with plant workers and conduct inspections to identify safety issues. As work at the plant has increased, the NRC determined an on site inspection presence is necessary to assess Holtec’s readiness for a potential restart. The overall assessment will be evaluated by the Palisades Restart Panel, along with the inspection and licensing activities, to determine if and when the plant may be allowed to safely restart.”
The new inspectors are Joseph Mancuso as the senior resident inspector and Takuma Okamoto as resident inspector. Mancuso, who has been with the NRC since 2012, was senior resident inspector and before that resident inspector at the D.C. Cook plant in Michigan. He has a B.S. in nuclear engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Okamoto joined the NRC staff in 2023. He was acting resident inspector at the Quad Cities nuclear power plant in Illinois. Earlier, Okamoto was nuclear and inspection engineer at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. He has a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Washington.
Florida-based Holtec International has never constructed or operated a nuclear power plant. It is decommissioning the Oyster Creek, Pilgrim, and Indian Point plants. It bought Palisades in 2022 for the stated purpose of decommissioning. Some observers suspected at the time that Holtec’s real interest was in a restart.
The company also has designed two small, modular reactors, first a 160-MW single loop natural circulation pressurized water machine and then a 300-MW model, based on the earlier design but adding forced coolant. Neither, of course, has been NRC licensed or sold to a customer, as is the case with all other U.S. small modular reactors.
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