The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week moved Entergy’s soon-to-be-retired Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station out of the lowest safety ranking allowed for an operational power plant.
The agency had indicated last month it was preparing to elevate the facility from Column 4 to Column 1 of the its Action Matrix.
The agency in 2015 placed the single-reactor plant into Column 4, multiple/repetitive degraded cornerstone, the lowest rank under which a nuclear power facility can remain operational, following a series of safety errors and unplanned shutdowns dating to 2013. Until this week, Pilgrim was the only U.S. nuclear plant with this ranking.
Since August 2017, Entergy has worked through 156 safety improvement measures laid out in a confirmatory action letter from the NRC. The agency in December conducted its last inspection at the Cape Cod site to ensure the New Orleans-based power company had met its final 40 commitments.
“Each of our 600 employees committed themselves to returning the plant to the NRC’s top regulatory category, which required our performance and corrective actions to undergo thousands of hours of enhanced reviews and inspections over the last two years,” Brian Sullivan, Pilgrim site vice president, said in a press release.
Entergy plans to close Pilgrim by May 31 after nearly 47 years of operation. It has already filed an application to transfer the plant’s operations and spent fuel storage licenses to Holtec International. The New Jersey energy technology company would then assume ownership of the plant’s decommissioning trust and all responsibility for decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management.
“Since Pilgrim was already slated to be permanently retired by June, I’m sure some wondered whether we would return to normal oversight before shutdown,” Sullivan said. “The professionalism and pride of our employees was evident every single day, and along with strong support from our company’s nuclear division, are the reasons we have seen greatly improved performance at the site.”
