The Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects to make a decision late this winter on whether to exempt the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station from certain Fukushima program initiatives, NRC spokesman Scott Burnell said this week.
In the wake of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan, the NRC implemented its Fukushima Lessons Learned program, an initiative meant to make American reactors more capable in handling severe accidents.
Pilgrim owner Entergy has requested an extension to comply with NRC’s post-Fukushima requirement to install hardened vents to containment buildings, which allow utilities to remove heat and pressure and prevent severe damage to reactor cores. The Dec. 31, 2019, extension would allow the utility to forgo the requirement entirely, as Pilgrim is slated to shut down by June 1, 2019.
The request has drawn opposition from residents and lawmakers, most recently the Massachusetts congressional delegation, which sent a letter to NRC on Sept. 21 asking the regulator to deny the request.
“When Entergy announced its intention to cease operations at Pilgrim by 2019, the NRC stated that the closure ‘will not relieve [Entergy] of the responsibility of running that plant as safely as possible until the end of its life,’” the letter reads. “If approved by NRC, Entergy’s request for extension would run directly counter to that responsibility, as it would increase the risk of a containment failure and a catastrophic radioactive release in the event of a terrorist attack or severe accident.”
The letter was signed by Democratic Sens. Edward J. Markey and Elizabeth Warren, and Democratic Reps. Michael E. Capuano, William R. Keating, Joseph P. Kennedy, III, Stephen F. Lynch, James P. McGovern, Seth Moulton, Richard Neal, and Niki Tsongas.
Entergy could not be reached for comment.
The lawmakers described how the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan cut off power and cooling capabilities at Fukushima, creating a dangerous buildup of hydrogen gas and steam. Venting the containment, the lawmakers contend, can reduce pressure and mitigate risks of hydrogen explosions.
“If vents are not hardened and capable of operating under the event of a severe accident, they may become damaged, increasing the likelihood that containment fails and radioactive material is released into the environment,” the letter states.
Pilgrim features the same boiling-water-reactor design as the three that melted down at Fukushima. It is also listed in column 4 of the NRC’s Action Matrix, which is the lowest safety designation a plant can have while remaining in operation. The agency downgraded the plant in September 2015 following a series of unplanned shutdowns and various operational issues. The facility most recently shut down unexpectedly for two weeks this month, when Entergy reported complications with a fluctuating feedwater regulating valve, which caused excessive water levels in the facility’s reactor vessel.
Burnell said Monday by email that NRC staff expects to respond to the exemption request late this winter, before Pilgrim starts up following a compliance outage. The NRC is also weighing three other relaxation requests from the Fukushima vent order. The list includes another request from Entergy for its James. A FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in New York, which was expected to shut down in 2017 but is set to remain open with its $110 million sale to Exelon. The other two exemption requests are for Exelon’s Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station and Public Service Enterprise Group’s Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station, both in New Jersey.
The NRC is also considering relaxation requests for post-Fukushima mitigating strategy orders for FitzPatrick and Omaha Public Power District’s Fort Calhoun Station in Nebraska. NRC’s post-Fukushima’s mitigation strategies are intended to allow facilities to cope with prolonged losses of power. Finally, NRC staff is waiting to hear potential exemption requests from Exelon for its Quad Cities Generating Station in Illinois and FirstEnergy’s Beaver Valley Power Station in Pennsylvania, Burnell said.
