NRC urged to act on Plymouth reactor petition
Members of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday heard testimony from people representing some of the 24 organizations who support the shutdown of all General Electric Mark I and Mark II nuclear reactors.
Opponents of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station are among those who signed the petition asking nuclear regulators to shut down 31 nuclear reactors across the country.
"If you don't revoke these licenses, you should resign, because you're not doing your job," Diane Turco of the Cape Downwinders — an organization that supports the shutdown of Pilgrim — said in a teleconference with NRC members, who met Thursday in Takoma Park, Md. The two-hour teleconference was streamed online Thursday afternoon.
Pilgrim is a G.E. Mark I plant.
Speaking on behalf of about 2,500 petitioners, Paul Gunter, who directed the reactor oversight project for the anti-nuclear group Beyond Nuclear, criticized the NRC's vote to delay a requirement for nuclear reactors to have filtered vents.
The 31 G.E. Mark I and Mark II reactors the petition specifies do not include this safety feature.
"If the agency is to restore any public confidence "» it must now act by revoking these," Gunter said.
Turco, a Harwich resident, told NRC members that people in the Bay State were "appalled" when the commission extended Pilgrim's license for 20 years, against the wishes of high-ranking elected officials, including Gov. Deval Patrick.
Much of the Cape Downwinders' discontent with NRC officials stems from the extension of the 40-year-old plant owned by Entergy Nuclear.
The plant exceeds industry averages for automatic shutdowns and unplanned power changes, according to the latest available data from federal regulators and nuclear experts.
A federal appeals court in February rejected state Attorney General Martha Coakley's legal challenge to the relicensing.
Coakley argued that the NRC did not take into consideration the 2011 nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in Japan.
"We do not trust the NRC to uphold our safety," Turco said. "Is this protecting the people or the profits of Entergy?"
Mary Lampert of Pilgrim Watch, a group that favors Pilgrim's shutdown, asserted that allowing the plant to keep running would violate the NRC's safety guidelines, which, she said, requires reactors to have leak-proof shells.
The NRC, Lampert suggested, did not learn from the Fukushima Dai-ichi disaster.
"We cannot have safety on the cheap," she said. "We are left with a situation of 'eeny, meeny, miny, moe, which Mark I or Mark II will blow?'"
Members of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday heard testimony from people representing some of the 24 organizations who support the shutdown of all General Electric Mark I and Mark II nuclear reactors.
Opponents of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station are among those who signed the petition asking nuclear regulators to shut down 31 nuclear reactors across the country.
"If you don't revoke these licenses, you should resign, because you're not doing your job," Diane Turco of the Cape Downwinders — an organization that supports the shutdown of Pilgrim — said in a teleconference with NRC members, who met Thursday in Takoma Park, Md. The two-hour teleconference was streamed online Thursday afternoon.
Pilgrim is a G.E. Mark I plant.
Speaking on behalf of about 2,500 petitioners, Paul Gunter, who directed the reactor oversight project for the anti-nuclear group Beyond Nuclear, criticized the NRC's vote to delay a requirement for nuclear reactors to have filtered vents.
The 31 G.E. Mark I and Mark II reactors the petition specifies do not include this safety feature.
"If the agency is to restore any public confidence "» it must now act by revoking these," Gunter said.
Turco, a Harwich resident, told NRC members that people in the Bay State were "appalled" when the commission extended Pilgrim's license for 20 years, against the wishes of high-ranking elected officials, including Gov. Deval Patrick.
Much of the Cape Downwinders' discontent with NRC officials stems from the extension of the 40-year-old plant owned by Entergy Nuclear.
The plant exceeds industry averages for automatic shutdowns and unplanned power changes, according to the latest available data from federal regulators and nuclear experts.
A federal appeals court in February rejected state Attorney General Martha Coakley's legal challenge to the relicensing.
Coakley argued that the NRC did not take into consideration the 2011 nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in Japan.
"We do not trust the NRC to uphold our safety," Turco said. "Is this protecting the people or the profits of Entergy?"
Mary Lampert of Pilgrim Watch, a group that favors Pilgrim's shutdown, asserted that allowing the plant to keep running would violate the NRC's safety guidelines, which, she said, requires reactors to have leak-proof shells.
The NRC, Lampert suggested, did not learn from the Fukushima Dai-ichi disaster.
"We cannot have safety on the cheap," she said. "We are left with a situation of 'eeny, meeny, miny, moe, which Mark I or Mark II will blow?'"
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