The company in charge of decommissioning a Massachusetts nuclear power plant won’t discharge the site’s irradiated wastewater into a nearby bay without getting a green light from the community and environmental experts, its CEO told a member of Congress during a field hearing last week.
During the remote hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, held May 6 in Plymouth, Mass., Holtec International CEO Kris Singh told Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) that his company would not release wastewater from Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station into the Cape Cod Bay “without the consent of stakeholders,” Markey said in a press release.
Singh also agreed to consult with experts from “an independent body with marine experience” to test the plant’s wastewater, the press release said.
“We will hold Holtec accountable for these commitments to the communities that surround Pilgrim, and we will work to ensure the [Nuclear Regulatory Commission] upholds its responsibility to be a watchdog on the decommissioning process,” Markey said Friday. “Over the years, communities with decommissioning nuclear power plants have repeatedly called on the Commission to be a good partner and for nuclear companies to be good neighbors. Today’s hearing is a notice to both that we will not allow these responsibilities to go unmet any longer.”
Holtec’s proposal to discharge Pilgrim’s wastewater into the bay has been the subject of some controversy lately. A bill currently working its way through the Massachusetts legislature aims to block such a discharge, and Markey himself has already urged Holtec to consider alternate disposal options.
Although it has already committed not to discharge any wastewater this year, the company has broadly defended the practice.
Kelly Trice, president of Holtec’s decommissioning branch, said in a Jan. 27 letter that water discharges are “normal for nuclear plants and are very well regulated” by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Pilgrim itself has discharged water for its entire 50-year lifespan, Trice said.
New Jersey-based Holtec acquired the Plymouth, Mass., Pilgrim from Entergy in 2018. The company has said that it could wrap the project by 2027 or so.
