The Massachusetts state legislature last week approved a proposal that could throw a wrench in a decommissioning company’s plans to discharge irradiated wastewater from a nuclear power plant it is currently dismantling in the Bay State.
If state Sen. Susan Moran’s (D) proposal, part of a sweeping economic development package greenlit by Boston lawmakers Thursday, is signed into law, a 13-member commission will assemble to “examine the potential negative environmental and economic impacts caused by the discharge of spent fuel pool water” from Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station.
The commission, which would be led by the Massachusetts attorney general or a designated representative, would be required to submit a report on its findings by November 2024, according to the bill.
In addition, the discharge of “any materials created as a waste product of nuclear energy from spent fuel pools” would be barred until around three months after the commission issues its report.
Holtec International, which currently owns the Plymouth, Mass., Pilgrim plant, is weighing whether to discharge the facility’s irradiated spent fuel pool water into the nearby Cape Cod Bay. If made law, Moran’s provision could delay any discharge from Pilgrim until around February 2025.
As of Monday, state Gov. Charlie Baker (R) had yet to sign the economic development package.
This proposal is Moran’s latest attempt to block the proposed discharges from Pilgrim. The lawmaker, who represents Plymouth and the nearby town of Barnstable, Mass., has said that the Bay State should “never allow” such action to take place.
Meanwhile, members of Massachusetts’s congressional delegation last week blasted Holtec for what they said was its “misinterpretation” of Pilgrim’s federal pollutant discharge permits.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in June told the company that its claim that wastewater discharges are allowed under the plant’s EPA-administered National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit “directly conflicts with the ‘plain language’ of the permit.”
A spokesperson for Holtec told the Exchange Monitor that the company “will comply with our permits related to potential future discharge.” Should a discharge be deemed illegal, the spokesperson said, “we would look at alternative means of disposal.”
Holtec has already said that it would not release any wastewater from Pilgrim in 2022, and that it could start doing so early next year. The Camden, N.J.-based nuclear services company acquired the plant from former operator Entergy Corp. in 2018, and has said that it could finish decommissioning the site by 2027 or so.
