FYI --
14 towns call for Pilgrim's closure
The Cape Downwinders have won overwhelming support this spring for the group's push to shut down the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, seen here in February.Cape Cod Times/Merrily Cassidy
The Cape Downwinders have won overwhelming support this spring for the group's push to shut down the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth.
Fourteen towns in Barnstable County, through town meeting or ballot votes, endorsed a citizens advisory question written by the anti-nuclear activists urging that the plant be closed.
The Downwinders hope to present Gov. Deval Patrick with the results of the initiative sometime in June.
"People understand this issue," said Diane Turco, Cape Downwinders' co-founder and Harwich resident. "It's just 'where do we go next?' We're going to the governor with the support of 14 towns and calling on our highest public safety chief to close down the reactor."
The governor's office did not respond to the Times request for a comment on Wednesday.
The public advisory question calls on the governor to urge the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to shut down the 41-year-old plant, which is owned and run by Entergy Corp., "because the public safety, particularly Cape Cod residents and visitors, cannot be assured."
On Tuesday, Falmouth, Yarmouth, Brewster, Orleans and Harwich voted to support the question. It had already been approved by Provincetown, Truro, Wellfleet, Eastham, Chatham, Dennis, Mashpee, Bourne and Sandwich.
Barnstable, the final town in the county to weigh in, won't have a ballot until fall.
State Sen. Daniel Wolf, D-Harwich, applauded the Downwinders' effort.
"Our district should accept zero risk with something of this magnitude," Wolf said Wednesday. "The fact that this has gained momentum and gotten overwhelming support shows how much concern there is."
Federal regulators re-licensed the Plymouth power plant for another 20 years in June, despite concern expressed by several state legislators, Attorney General Martha Coakley and Patrick.
The attorney general filed a subsequent unsuccessful court appeal of the re-licensing on grounds the NRC failed to consider similarities between the Pilgrim nuclear plant and the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in Japan, which experienced a meltdown in 2011 following an earthquake and tsunami.
Neil Sheehan, NRC spokesman, said the agency thoroughly reviewed all data on the Pilgrim plant prior to re-licensing it for another 20 years.
"Anyone who followed the process knows the renewal application was reviewed over the course of many years and included environmental reviews, safety reviews, a lengthy hearing and a review by an independent panel of nuclear safety experts," Sheehan said.
Regarding safety plans for areas around the plant, Sheehan said the Federal Emergency Management Agency oversees local plans developed by regional and state emergency management agencies.
"Those are living documents constantly being reviewed and revised," he said.
Paul Rifkin, a Barnstable resident and member of the Cape Downwinders, called the results of the recent advisory question votes "pretty amazing."
"A year ago, we were kind of outsiders and hardly known," Rifkin said.
"Now we've had this victory, which in most towns was by a huge margin. I think if we continue to get our message out, we'll close the damn plant down."
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