The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday fielded an onslaught of complaints from the public about the safety culture at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, following a controversial email leak that revealed troubling inspection findings at the beleaguered Massachusetts plant.
In a rare move, and at the request of a host of officials from the state, the NRC held a public meeting in Plymouth to discuss an ongoing “special inspection” at the plant. The inspection stems from the site’s 2015 downgrade to Column 4 of the agency’s Action Matrix, the lowest safety rating a plant can have while remaining in operation. The 44-year-old facility is scheduled for permanent shutdown in 2019.
Prior to Tuesday’s public meeting, 10 NRC staffers met with several dozen state officials and lawmakers on Monday in what agency spokesman Neil Sheehan described as a “government-to-government” meeting. Sources said about 300 people attended the meeting on Tuesday, with many calling for the plant to be shut down immediately. The NRC explained that operator Entergy will refuel Pilgrim in the spring as scheduled. Refueling outages occur every 18 months to two years at nuclear plants.
“That was like a slap in the face across the hundreds of people who were there saying shut it down,” Diane Turco, president of the Cape Downwinders, a group of residents from Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket, said over the phone Wednesday. She also voiced transparency concerns about Monday’s “closed-door” meeting.
Turco received the controversial email in December, which included candid observations from inspection team leader Don Jackson, most notably concerns about Entergy’s safety culture. Turco said Pilgrim is a failed reactor under failed oversight, run by a failing corporation, which is a “recipe for catastrophe.
