A New England conservation group last week added its voice to the growing chorus of opposition to Holtec International’s strategy for dealing with irradiated wastewater from a shuttered Massachusetts nuclear power plant.
The Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) urged Holtec “to abandon all plans” to release water from Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station into the nearby Cape Cod Bay, according to a letter dated June 1. CLF requested that the company use an alternative disposal method for the plant’s wastewater.
Holtec, which is currently decommissioning the Plymouth, Mass., Pilgrim plant, has said that it would not discharge any water into the bay in 2022, but that such a practice is normal for nuclear plants under decommissioning and that radioactivity in the water meets safety standards set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
“While the radioactive waste may be treated to comply with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission guidelines, studies show that the pollutants in the waste may still have deleterious effects on human health,” CLF retorted in its letter. “Holtec cannot fully remove all radionuclides from the waste, and the full extent of the negative effects of radionuclides on human health is unknown.”
The conservation group is the newest of an array of stakeholders that have voiced their concerns with Holtec’s wastewater plan in recent months. This has caught the attention of Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who in May asked Holtec CEO Kris Singh during a Senate Energy and Public Works Committee hearing to commit to not discharging water from Pilgrim into the bay without stakeholder consent.
Meanwhile, Holtec in January said it was evaluating other options for disposing of Pilgrim’s wastewater such as evaporation or offsite storage, but that a discharge would “likely” be part of its final disposal plan.
Camden, N.J.-based Holtec acquired Pilgrim from operator Entergy in 2018. The company has said that it could wrap up decommissioning at the site around 2027 or so.
