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Pilgrim nuclear plant hopes for upgrade
Federal regulators will decide whether the plant remains classified among the country’s five worst performers or moves to a higher category.
State Attorney General Maura Healey supports a bill that would require nuclear reactor operators to submit plans for moving spent fuel rods from wet pools into dry casks. At Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, above, about 200 rods were recently moved into dry casks because the pool had reached capacity. Story, Page A4. Steve Haines/Cape Cod Times File
By Christine Legere
clegere@capecodonline.com
Posted Jun. 20, 2015
PLYMOUTH — In the next several weeks, federal regulators will decide whether Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station remains classified among the country’s five worst performers or moves to a higher category, where most of the nation’s other nuclear power reactors are listed.
Pilgrim was placed in the “degraded” performance category by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in February 2014, based on its number of unplanned shutdowns and shutdowns with complications during the previous year. That category results in closer federal scrutiny with more frequent inspections.
After a trip to Pilgrim in December, a federal inspection team reported that plant operators had come up with adequate plans for addressing deficiencies but fell short when it came to carrying out those plans and fully understanding what had caused the issues. That report has kept Pilgrim in its “degraded” performance category.
The commission gave Pilgrim a second chance to address the problems and even allowed plant operators to let it know when they were ready for another inspection. In early May, inspectors returned and this time concluded that Entergy, Pilgrim’s owner-operator, had adequately addressed the previously identified shortcomings.
Entergy is celebrating. “We are very pleased that the NRC’s inspection resulted in a successful conclusion,” spokeswoman Lauren Burm wrote in an email. “The entire Pilgrim team was committed to a successful outcome and worked hard to prepare for this inspection.”
A spokesman for the regulatory commission said the success of the inspection ordinarily would allow the plant to be moved out of its current “degraded” performance category and into one that requires basic oversight.
But a violation connected to equipment glitches during January’s blizzard may keep Pilgrim at the lower level.
“If they did not have this violation out there, they would end the quarter upgraded,” spokesman Neil Sheehan said. “We’ll be closing out the quarter at the end of the month, and there will be deliberation before we decide.”
Complications accompanying the reactor's shutdown during the late January storm drew commission investigators to Pilgrim last winter. The team concluded Entergy could have prevented a malfunction of a safety valve used for cooling the reactor if it had addressed a problem that dated back to February 2013.
Burm recently said the company had installed new safety relief valves during the reactor’s refueling in April.
Entergy has appealed the post-storm inspection report and will meet with federal officials at commission headquarters July 8 to argue its position.
What happens at the conference will determine whether Pilgrim must continue with a higher level of federal scrutiny or can move forward with basic oversight.
“A decision is not expected until sometime this summer,” Sheehan said.
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