By John Stang
Entergy does not expect the ongoing shutdown of the Pilgrim Nuclear Generating Station to affect its longer-term plans to close the plant next year, a spokesman said Wednesday. However, members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation want Pilgrim to dramatically improve its performance before then.
The utility company declined to say this week when it expects to return the 690-megawatt reactor to service after it suspended power production on March 6 due to equipment problems — saying that information is “business sensitive.”
Pilgrim went offline after operators spotted a suspected leak in a system that heats water before it is pumped into the boiling water reactor. After the repairs, staff kept the reactor offline in anticipation of a heavy March 13 storm in which a power line into the station was knocked down. Later, a transformer handling off-site power was determined to need replacement.
In further follow-up inspections, operators found that support clamps were incorrectly installed on nine pipes feeding into the hydraulic system that would lower the control rods if the reactor needs to be shut down.
“This does not have an issue with our planned May 31, 2019 retirement date,” said Pilgrim spokesman Patrick O’Brien.
Pilgrim is currently listed in “Column 4” of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s safety rating system, the lowest ranking allowed for an operational reactor. Pilgrim and the two Arkansas Nuclear One reactors outside the city of Russellville are the only three reactors listed under Column 4. Entergy operates all three.
The NRC put Pilgrim in Column 4 in September 2015 following a series of safety problems and unplanned shutdowns. In October 2015, the company said it would close the plant by June 1, 2019, due to financial challenges including lower wholesale energy prices and what it called a flawed energy market design.
The nuclear regulator completed its special inspection of Pilgrim and is now conducting five inspections to ensure Entergy is carrying out an extensive recovery plan so the facility can be removed from Column 4. Two of the inspections have been completed.
The final three inspections are scheduled for June, September, and December of this year. Consequently, Pilgrim expects to leave Column 4 status in early 2019, according to O’Brien. The NRC will then determine whether the plant has made “sufficient progress” for a safety status upgrade.
“Our goal (is) to return to normal regulatory oversight before we retire the plant on May 31, 2019. Pilgrim will continue to comply with the NRC’s regulations and operate the plant safely and securely though its shutdown on June 1, 2019,” he said.
Some local residents and lawmakers, though, have called for closing the facility even earlier than scheduled.
On Feb. 12, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D), Sen. Ed Markey (D), and Rep. Bill Keating (D) sent a letter to the NRC asking why Pilgrim has remained in Column 4 and been unable to deal with severe winter storms that are common in New England. A Jan. 4 storm forced Pilgrim to shut down as a precautionary measure against power lines leading to the plant being knocked down during operations. Similar shutdowns had occurred in previous years.
The lawmakers are also impatient with Pilgrim remaining in Column 4 status for 2 1/2 years. “Pilgrim must not be allowed to languish in Column 4 for the remaining 18 months of operations ahead of its anticipated shutdown. We share the concerns of the local residents on the safety of the plant’s operations as long as it remains in Column 4,” they wrote.
On Tuesday, Warren issued a statement cranking up the pressure on both the NRC and Entergy: “Entergy has shrugged off federal safety requirements, citing the May 2019 shutdown date as a reason to forego critical investments in safety upgrades that protect our communities . … Furthermore, Pilgrim’s stagnation in Column 4 of the NRC’s safety rating system demonstrates that improving quality is not a priority, and signals a greater concern for the bottom line than people of Southeastern Massachusetts. The NRC must insist Entergy fully and swiftly comply with federal safety regulations (that led to the Column 4 designation), and if Entergy continues to operate Pilgrim without regard to critical safety standards, I insist that the NRC take the necessary steps to shut the plant down.”
At an annual public meeting Tuesday in Plymouth to discuss operations at Pilgrim., NRC officials said the plant showed improvement in 2017, but needs more work, according to the Quincy Patriot-Ledger. “We are not simply looking for progress and improvement. We are looking for the sustainability of progress and improvement,” the newspaper quoted Anthony Dimitriadis, the NRC’s branch chief of reactor projects covering Pilgrim, as saying.
