Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff on Monday recommended the agency deny a watchdog group’s call for a public hearing on Entergy’s request to forgo certain NRC Fukushima lessons learned program requirements at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station.
The utility is asking the agency to relax requirements for installing a hardened containment venting system (HCVS) at the Massachusetts plant’s containment buildings. The HCVS, a post-Fukushima reform, allows operators to remove heat and pressure and prevent severe damage to reactor cores. Pilgrim features the same boiling-water reactor design as the three reactors that melted down at Fukushima in 2011. The Dec. 31, 2019, extension would allow Entergy to forgo some Fukushima requirements entirely, as Pilgrim is slated to shut down by June 1, 2019.
NRC staff’s response recommended the regulator deny the request from Pilgrim Watch and seven other petitioners for a hearing on the grounds that the groups failed to establish “standing” for a hearing or to submit an “admissible contention.” The response says the organizations are not entitled to a hearing under the under the Atomic Energy Act or agency regulations.
“The commission has reasoned that ‘allowing NRC hearings on claims for stronger enforcement remedies risks’ turning focused regulatory proceedings into amorphous public extravaganzas,” the NRC staff recommendation says.
The petitioners challenged Entergy’s request on Sept. 7, saying the utility is essentially requesting a license amendment, and therefore should follow procedures for a license amendment request, which allows for a public hearing. The groups also argued that NRC relaxation of the HCVS requirement would “deny citizens and communities the protection a reliable severe accident capable wetwell venting system would provide during the two remaining years of Pilgrim’s operations.”
