Pilgrim protestors persuade Patrick
"We got our answer. He's going to call for the NRC to shut down the reactor."
Cape protestors carried this sign.
Pilgrim critics find Patrick willing to convey concerns
Senator Wolf says release of radiation would be a complete catastrophe
Protestors from Cape Cod prevailed upon Gov. Deval Patrick on Monday, convincing him to use his office in their effort to shutter a Plymouth nuclear plant.Following hours of rallying and occupying the governor's lobby, organizer Diane Turco, of Harwich, was brought into Patrick's office for a quick meeting where he asked her to pass along resolutions from Cape towns and said he would send those to the federal agency that regulates nuclear power plants.
After the meeting, Patrick said, "I'm going to write a letter, yes" when asked if he would call on federal regulators to shutter the plant. An aide said he would write his own letter.
"I'd rather we didn't have it. And I've expressed that publicly before," Patrick told reporters on his way to an event Monday afternoon. He also said, "It doesn't matter what I think."
Carrying posters with the nuclear symbol atop a map of Cape Cod Bay or pictured in an open oyster shell, the activists rallied in a State House auditorium, packed the lobby of Patrick's temporary second floor office, and made grim predictions.
For a video report on the rally, go here.
"I just want the governor to know whichever way the wind blows, we're all going to be in the body count," said Provincetown resident Marty Hassell.
In May 2012, the 42-year-old Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station on the shores of Plymouth received a 20-year license renewal from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, a five-member body appointed by the president.
"We would only act to shut down the plant if we identified significant and pervasive problems that could call into question the facility's safety. We have not seen issues of that magnitude at Pilgrim," NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan told the News Service in an email.
Sheehan said the plant has received additional oversight because of performance indicators that track unplanned shutdowns and unplanned shutdowns with complications.
In a March 4 letter from NRC Regional Administrator William Dean, the NRC said it would conduct a public meeting to review "station performance."
A lobbyist for Entergy, the plant's owner, did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Senate President Therese Murray, who has called for the creation of a national nuclear waste storage area, said she wished federal regulators listened to her concerns, while noting the positive aspects of the plant in her district. Without a national nuclear waste area, each plant site holds its spent fuel rods, even after it closes down.
"We can't close Pilgrim because we don't have the authority to do it," Murray said. She said, "Six-hundred-fifty people work at that plant. It produces electricity. Am I concerned about it? Yeah. I fought against Pilgrim, too, and I fought against keeping the rods stored in a pool, and I'm fighting with NRC for 20 years." She said, "I think they should have listened to our concerns before they gave the license."
Sen. Dan Wolf, a Harwich Democrat, who joined in the earlier rally, said a release of radiation would be a complete catastrophe at the nuclear plant.
"There's a spent fuel-rod pool holding over 3,000 spent fuel-rods that have been sitting there, accumulating more and more rods over the last 40 years. How likely is it? It's not likely. I mean the risk of something happening there is relatively small, but on the other hand the consequences of it happening - if something should happen - are almost unimaginable for this region," Wolf told reporters. He said, "Ultimately it's unacceptable to us that our generational legacy would be to give to the next generation a 60-year-old nuclear power plant with over 5,000 spent fuel rods. That is turning into a nuclear waste dump in our backyards and it's time to do something about it."
The Environmental Protection Agency has oversight of the plant, which is 18 years overdue for a permit, said Wolf, who said the state also has oversight on emergency management and the use of water from the bay to cool the plant. Wolf said there is a "legitimate claim" that the plant should stop cycling water from the bay and start using a "closed cycle."
The EPA was not able to provide additional information when reached for comment.
"We think that if that plant was brought up to modern standards, modern environmental and energy standards, that it might not be cost-effective and the decision might be made to shut it down sooner rather than later," Wolf said.
Cape residents filled the governor's lobby with people, signs and sporadic chanting calling for recognition of what they said were votes by 15 Cape towns asking Patrick to call on the NRC to shut down the plant. As authorities instructed protestors to keep a clear path, members of the group occasionally reminded their colleagues about the pending departure of a bus back to the Cape and made wry comparisons between the jam of people in the lobby and congestion on the bridges over the Cape Cod Canal.
"We believe our lives and safety are at risk every day," said Orleans resident Bruce Taub, as Patrick's deputy chief of staff, Rosemary Powers, arrived to hear their demands. He said, "It's an emergency, madam."
After the crowd dwindled to about a dozen and just before Patrick left for an event at Logan International Airport, Powers brought Turco in for a quick meeting with the governor.
"He's going to call for the NRC to shut down the reactor because the public safety cannot be assured," Turco said. She said, "We got our answer."
In the SHNS photo below, the Pilgrim protestors rally in the State House yesterday.
http://www.capecodtoday.com/article/2014/03/11/24445-pilgrim-protestors-persuade-patrick
Pilgrim protesters win promise from Patrick
Members of Cape Cod Downwinders crowd the entrance to Gov. Deval Patrick's office at the Statehouse after holding a rally in the Gardner Auditorium calling for the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth to be shut down.Cape Cod Times/Christine Hochkeppel
BOSTON — After missing their charter bus home to stake out Gov. Deval Patrick, members of the Cape Downwinders nuclear watchdog group left Boston on Monday with the governor's promise to officially reiterate his concerns about the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth.
"I'm going to write a letter, yes," Patrick told reporters when asked if he would call on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to shutter the 42-year-old plant.
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His comments followed a brief meeting with Diane Turco, founder of the Cape Downwinders, who packed into the governor's temporary second-floor office with fellow activists.
"She and I share the concerns about safety for Pilgrim, and I will express that in a letter as I have in the past," Patrick said as he rushed to an event at Logan International Airport in Boston.
In the hours leading up to Turco's minute of gubernatorial face time, a crowd of about 75 activists rallied in a Statehouse auditorium, demanding that Patrick call on the NRC to close Pilgrim. The rally came a day before today's three-year anniversary of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster — an event that galvanized protests against the Plymouth plant, named one of the nine worst-performing reactors in the country for its several unplanned shutdowns last year.
"Fukushima blew away the myth that nuclear power is safe," Turco said at the rally against the backdrop of a sign that read "No More Fukushimas."
She and other activists marched to Patrick's office to deliver the resolutions each of the Cape's 15 towns has passed in support of closing Pilgrim. And she refused to leave for two hours until she had an answer.
The crowd thinned as the afternoon wore on. As authorities cleared a path through the lobby, Helen Grimm looked at the congestion and said, "This could be Cape Cod" in the event of an emergency at the nuclear plant.
At 3:30 p.m., just as Patrick was preparing to leave, Turco was ushered into a room and spoke privately with Patrick as he put on his coat.
"He's going to call for the NRC to shut down the reactor because the public safety cannot be assured," Turco said. "We got our answer."
During the rally, she and other activists criticized Patrick for not heeding the resolutions passed by the Cape towns. They were under no illusions that the state has jurisdiction over Pilgrim, which is regulated under federal laws that pre-empt any passed by the state.
But after seeing Govs. Andrew Cuomo and Peter Shumlin call for the NRC to shut down plants in New York and Vermont, respectively, the Cape Downwinders want Patrick to follow suit.
In 2012, Patrick joined a chorus of other state lawmakers in asking the NRC to take a closer look at the plant's safety issues. Patrick later criticized the NRC for re-licensing the plant for another 20 years before resolving the state's safety and environmental concerns.
More recently, Patrick has publicly questioned whether Pilgrim is needed to fulfill Massachusetts' energy needs. But on Monday, he noted the state's jurisdictional challenge.
"It doesn't matter what I think," he told reporters. "I'd rather we didn't have it, and I've expressed that publicly before, and I've expressed it to the (NRC), and I'll do it again."
Neil Sheehan, an NRC spokesman, said Monday that the plant is currently under closer scrutiny for the mechanical complications and unplanned shutdowns of last year.
"We would only act to shut down the plant if we identified significant and pervasive problems that could call into question the facility's safety," Sheehan said in an email. "We have not seen issues of that magnitude or prevalence at Pilgrim."
However, Sheehan also said the NRC will engage Entergy this year in looking at the "root causes" of the drop in the plant's performance rating to ensure the company has put in place "thorough and comprehensive corrective actions."
State Sen. Daniel Wolf, D-Harwich, attended the rally and raised concerns about the plant becoming a "nuclear waste dump" holding more than 5,000 spent fuel rods that will be passed on to future generations. Wolf said Patrick has been "good on this issue relative to what he said."
"I think the point of this event is to move it up on the priority list," he said after the rally. "This is really, I think, a loud voice to say we think you get it but we really want you to prioritize it."
Wolf said the state has some oversight over emergency management and the plant's use of seawater drawn from Cape Cod Bay to cool the water circulating around the reactor. Before the meeting, Wolf said there is a "legitimate claim" that Pilgrim should adopt a "closed cycle" rather than use seawater and release it back into the bay.
When it came time for Wellfleet residents to speak at the rally, 9-year-old Ella Grimm said the obligation will fall to younger generations if the plant is not shut down soon.
"We should really shut Pilgrim down," she said, "because if the older generation doesn't, the younger generation has a big problem on its hands."
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