Nuke board opts against hearing Pilgrim critics
Federal nuclear regulators have dealt another blow to opponents of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday affirmed a finding by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel denying petitions to intervene and requests for a hearing by anti-nuclear activists seeking to challenge the adequacy of safety measures required for the plant.
The three-judge safety and licensing board — which is the quasi-judicial arm of the NRC — ruled in July that Duxbury-based Pilgrim Watch, which opposes the operation of the Plymouth nuclear plant, could not challenge two orders issued by the NRC in response to the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster in Japan.
The orders required that all boiling-water reactors similar to the ones at Pilgrim and Fukushima have reliable venting systems and instrumentation to measure water levels in spent fuel pools.
The five-member NRC reiterated the assertion by the safety and licensing board that a safety order can be challenged based on whether its implementation would diminish plant safety but not based on the belief that the order should be improved.
Pilgrim Watch's lawyer, Richard Webster, said he had not yet reviewed the NRC's order but clearly it is disappointing if not unexpected.
The idea that any order that improves safety in the slightest cannot be challenged makes the hearing process in these cases unduly restrictive, he said.
"The pretense of safety hurts us more than an interim period where there's a lack of safety," he said about concerns that any challenge to the adequacy of safety measures would delay their implementation.
The NRC suffers from a lack of public trust and any restriction of the public process, such as in this case, further damages that trust, he said.
Pilgrim Watch has 60 days to petition for a review of the NRC's finding in federal court.
The NRC approved a 20-year license extension for the Entergy Nuclear-owned plant in May, despite concerns raised by Pilgrim Watch and other organizations about safety at the 40-year-old facility.
NRC and Entergy officials say that, although the plant has experienced an above average number of automatic shutdowns and power changes in the past two years, it is safe to operate.
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