Residents in Massachusetts are petitioning Gov. Charlie Baker to support expeditious transfer of spent fuel at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station to dry storage.
Cape Downwinders — a group of residents from Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket – has been circulating a petition to advance advisory questions to local ballots this spring and fall in all 15 Cape Cod towns. The petition is an effort to persuade Baker to support spent fuel transfer at Pilgrim. According to the group, Pilgrim was designed to hold 880 spent fuel assemblies in its spent fuel pool but now holds 2,822.
Pilgrim is due to close in 2019, but that is not soon enough for many local residents. The plant has experienced several unplanned shutdowns and a long list of operational issues dating to 2013. The NRC in 2015 downgraded the nuclear facility to Category 4 of its Action Matrix, which is the lowest safety rating a plant can have while remaining in operation.
The regulator is currently wrapping up a special inspection at the plant tied to the 2015 downgrade. The regulator is wrapping up a special inspection at the plant tied to the 2015 downgrade. Public backlash erupted in December when an NRC employee inadvertently sent an email to Cape Downwinders President Diane Turco, revealing candid details from the inspection. The controversial email, written by NRC Pilgrim inspection team leader Don Jackson, detailed a long list of observations at the plant, including concerns about Entergy’s safety culture. NRC has since held a public meeting in Plymouth, explaining that the inspection details do not present any conclusions about overall performance at the plant.
“The tons of dangerous high level nuclear waste housed in Pilgrim’s spent fuel pool poses a significant and imminent threat to public health and safety,” Cape Downwinders stated in an email blast Wednesday. “Because there is no federal repository to store the waste, it remains on site in Plymouth and will be there for decades.”
The nonbinding public advisory question the group is pushing has been approved by the towns of Provincetown, Wellfleet, Eastham, Orleans, Chatham, Dennis, Mashpee, Bourne, and Sandwich.
NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan on Wednesday confirmed Cape Downwinders’ characterization of spent fuel at Pilgrim, but said by email this is “true at virtually every U.S. nuclear power plant,” resulting from the failure to develop a federal repository for high-level radioactive waste.
“Before increased storage capacity was permitted, the plants’ owners had to submit safety evaluations demonstrating that the fuel would remain safe in the changed configurations,” Sheehan wrote.
