Seashore commission to warn Baker of Pilgrim threat
WELLFLEET — With its chairman describing the conduct of the Entergy Corp., owner of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, as “nonstop mismanagement and misinformation,” the Cape Cod National Seashore Advisory Commission at its quarterly meeting on Monday voted to send another letter to Gov. Charlie Baker expressing its concerns about recent events at the plant.
Maureen Burgess, Truro’s representative on the commission and chair of its Pilgrim emergency planning subcommittee, recounted a series of shutdowns at the power plant over the summer because of various malfunctions.
“It wasn’t a good summer,” Burgess said, “and it’s getting worse.”
She expressed particular alarm about a hydrogen gas leak from the plant’s turbine room on Sept. 9, which she said was not reported to the Plymouth Fire Dept. “The fire chief found out about the leak three days later from a reporter who called him about it,” said Burgess. She added that the company filed a false report following the leak, stating that the fire department had been notified.
“Many people consider this a public safety crisis and are calling for an immediate shutdown of the plant,” Burgess said.
“It’s almost criminal,” commented Provincetown representative Mary-Jo Avellar.
Chair Richard Delaney’s motion that Burgess draft a letter to the governor was unanimously approved. Don Nuendel, the Eastham representative, said that the letter should “remind the governor how much money the state gets from Cape Cod tourism” and warn of economic disaster “if this place becomes uninhabitable.”
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