NRC NEWS

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION

Office of Public Affairs Region III

2443 Warrenville Road

Lisle IL 60532

Site: www.nrc.gov

Blog: http://public-blog.nrc-gateway.gov

No. III-12-030

Contact: Viktoria Mitlyng (630) 829-9662

 Prema Chandrathil (630) 829-9663

July 17, 2012

E-Mail: OPA3 @nrc.gov 

NRC ISSUES CONFIRMATORY ACTION LETTER TO 

PALISADES NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a Confirmatory Action Letter 

(CAL) documenting actions that the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant has agreed to take in order to 

provide assurance that an apparent leak in the safety injection refueling water storage tank and a 

potential leak in the control room do not affect public health and safety. The plant is owned by 

Entergy Nuclear Operations and is located in Covert, Mich., approximately 40 miles west of 

Kalamazoo.

“After extensive reviews by our inspectors we concluded that the tank and the control 

room are safe for plant operations but that additional commitments are needed to provide the 

necessary assurance that leaks will not affect equipment to safely operate or safely shutdown,” 

said NRC Region III Administrator Charles Casto. “We will schedule a public meeting shortly to 

discuss this issue and the NRC’s plans to monitor the plant’s actions moving forward.”

Some of the Entergy commitments to the NRC include:

- Measure and trend daily leakage from the tank.

- Declare the tank inoperable if the leakage reaches 38 gallons per day.

- If the tank is actively leaking, take actions to repair the tank in accordance with 

applicable safety standards.

- Continue to inspect the concrete support structure above the control room, control 

room hallway and control room ceiling.

- Correct the condition related to water seepage through the concrete support structure 

into the control room prior to the restart from the 2013 refueling outage.

The NRC will review and evaluate the plant’s actions in response to the CAL in order to 

make sure they are thorough and complete. Failure to meet the commitments in the CAL may 

result in additional regulatory action if the utility does not provide reasonable assurance that the 

NRC can rely on Entergy to meet the NRC’s requirements and protect public health and safety.
On June 12 the plant shut down the reactor due to a leak in the tank. The NRC 

immediately dispatched an inspector to supplement the resident inspectors in the review of the 

plant’s work to repair the leak. The leak was repaired. There is a small amount of seepage 

coming from the area surrounding the tank. It is possible that this leakage is from moisture 

outside the tank or from the tank itself. The NRC has reviewed the plant’s evaluation and 

determined that due to its size, the leak does not pose a risk to the continued safe operation of the 

plant. The water is being contained and is not being released to the environment. The tank

contains a minimum of 250,000 gallons of borated water, used for activities during refueling 

outages and supplies the water for the emergency core cooling systems and containment spray 

system during emergencies. 

Copies of the CAL will be posted on the Agencywide Documents Access and 

Management System (ADAMS) at the NRC website.

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