State, federal officials press NRC on Pilgrim safety
Wednesday
Letter sent Wednesday seeks public hearing on inspection concerns.
BOSTON - Gov. Charlie Baker, Attorney General Maura Healey, Senate President Stan Rosenberg, along with state and federal legislators representing Southeastern Massachusetts, are strongly urging the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to meet with them and the public as soon as possible to discuss the status of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth.
But they may not get the response they are looking for from the federal agency in charge of nuclear reactor oversight.
Prompting their letter Wednesday to NRC Chairman Stephen Burns was a Dec. 6 in-house email sent by the leader of a 20-member inspection team scouring plant systems, procedures and staff performance. In it, team leader Donald Jackson described Pilgrim staff as "overwhelmed" with the operation of the 44-year-old plant, which is currently classified by the NRC as one of the three worst performers in the country.
Jackson's preliminary findings included failure by staff to follow established industry procedures, failure to properly fix broken equipment, lack of required expertise among plant specialists, failure of some staff to understand their roles and responsibilities, and a team of employees who appear to be struggling with keeping the plant running.
The email was mistakenly sent to Diane Turco, director of the anti-Pilgrim citizens group Cape Downwinders, who provided it to the Cape Cod Times.
"The views expressed by the leader of the NRC Pilgrim special inspection team in a December 6, 2016, email have raised legitimate concerns among the public about their safety and raised serious questions about Entergy's ability to continue to operate the plant safely," states the letter from Massachusetts leaders to Burns. "While the NRC undoubtedly regrets the inadvertent disclosure of the preliminary thoughts expressed in the December 6 email, the disclosure happened, and the NRC now has the obligation to address questions raised by that email to help assuage growing public safety concerns."
The inspection team conducted the first two weeks of the three-week special inspection from Nov. 28 to Dec. 8. The team is due back at Pilgrim on Monday to conduct the final week.
"We understand that the NRC does not typically conduct public hearings during a pending inspection and do not ask that the NRC compromise its investigation by disclosing any confidential or privileged information," the letter says. "However, we respectfully submit that the unique circumstances arising from the public disclosure of the December 6 email and the most recent plant shutdown warrant an exception from the NRC's usual practice."
In an email to the Times, NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said the letter would be reviewed and a response sent "in a timely manner. Information related to the inspection, however, will remain off-limits."
"As we said in our statement issued after the inadvertent release, the email inadvertently sent to a member of the public contained preliminary observations from our inspection team," Sheehan wrote. "The team is still in the midst of its intensive review at the Pilgrim nuclear power plant and will return to the plant next Monday for a third week of on-site inspections."
Sheehan went on to say inspectors continually evaluate Pilgrim to ensure it remains safe, "and Pilgrim remains safe based on what we have seen thus far."
"The team will have 45 days after the inspection formally ends to document any findings," Sheehan continued. "In the meantime, information on the progress of our review is considered 'pre-decisional' and therefore we will not have any further comment at this time regarding it."
In the letter to Burns, state and federal legislators say they want more information on other matters as well, such as Pilgrim's most recent shutdown Dec. 15. Operators shut the reactor down after three of eight main steam isolation valves, designed to prevent radiation from seeping into the environment during a reactor emergency, were found to be leaking.
"A public meeting also would allow the NRC to inform members of the community about how these leaks were discovered, the process and timeline associated with their repair, and how the public can be assured that they will not recur," the letter says.
The legislators also ask that the NRC grant no exemptions to Entergy, Pilgrim's owner-operator, for upgrades required since the accident at Fukushima Daiichi in Japan. Entergy has a request for an exemption from required upgrades to some major vents.
The plant is set to shut down permanently in mid-2019.
State Sen. Viriato "Vinny" deMacedo, who represents the Plymouth and Barnstable District, which includes Bourne, Falmouth and Sandwich, was among the members of the Cape and Islands legislative delegation to sign the letter.
"I think it's important that we all are speaking with one voice to say that that email that was released not too long ago begs a lot of questions in regards to the safety of the plant," he said.
DeMacedo said the main question he wanted answered was how the concerns outlined in the Dec. 6 email would affect public safety. He said he was surprised by the contents of that email.
"It wasn't a glowing assessment of what was happening there," he said of the plant.
DeMacedo said he hoped the state delegation's display of concern for the issue would prompt the NRC to hold a public meeting.
Turco said she was pleased with the action taken by the governor and the legislators but wished they had taken it one step further.
"This powerful joint statement by our elected officials shows they understand the clear and present dangers of Pilgrim," Turco wrote to the Times. She went on to say a meeting with the NRC would not allay growing public safety concerns.
"The email confirmed what we already know. The only responsible and legitimate action is that Attorney General Healey, Governor Baker et al. demand the NRC immediately revoke Entergy's operating license."
Entergy is sticking with the statement it issued after the email was leaked.
"We have worked hard to address the issues that led to station performance decline and look forward to demonstrating to the NRC that we have made significant progress in these areas through the inspection process," said the statement forwarded by spokesman Patrick O'Brien. "Until the results of the 95003 Phase C inspection and the confirmatory action letter are released, we will not comment on the inspection."
- Staff writer Madeleine List contributed to this report.
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