Lawmakers, advisory panel plot Pilgrim’s future
By Christine Legere
Posted Apr 11, 2018
WEST BARNSTABLE — While there have been different perspectives among the public on the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station over the last 45 years, priorities are now aligning as the beleaguered plant progresses toward its announced permanent closure on June 1, 2019.
That was the message delivered by the region’s senators and representatives during a meeting of the Pilgrim Nuclear Decommissioning Advisory Panel at Cape Cod Community College on Wednesday night.
“We’re entering a really critical phase: the safe, swift decommissioning of Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station,” state Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, said to the panel.
Whether you are a plant opponent or plant employee, everyone sees safety as a top priority once the reactor shuts down, Cyr said.
Wednesday was kind of a wrapup of the advisory panel’s first year of information gathering. Meeting time was dedicated to listening to concerns and recommendations from the region’s lawmakers, and kicked off with a presentation by Cyr and state Sen. Vinny deMacedo, R-Plymouth, and state Rep. Mathew Muratore, R-Plymouth.
Muratore presented the advisory panel with a letter outlining five recommended actions and signed by all regional legislators.
The delegation recommended legislation to clearly lay out the state’s role and authority in the decommissioning process, which will include the establishment of decommissioning oversight authority, radiological standards, emergency zone definition, preparedness requirements and funding, site restoration and monitoring standards and reporting.
Another challenge is communication among all the state entities that will be involved in decommissioning.
“No one single agency has authority over Pilgrim,” Cyr said of another recommendation.“There’s a feeling among the delegation that this needs to be addressed across state agencies.”
The legislative group was therefore recommending that the governor establish an interagency group that would act as liaison among the various agencies interacting with the nuclear power station.
The area’s lawmakers also plan to work on “bill-back” legislation that would charge Entergy Corp., current owners of Pilgrim, and its successors for any expenditures the state incurs in monitoring the decommissioning process.
One recommendation from the legislators already had received a boost earlier in the day.
The state Department of Public Health had sent a letter to Entergy seeking strict limits on the amount of radioactivity that is released post-cleanup.
DPH regulations establish maximums for the release rate of residual radioactivity at below 10 millirem per year for all pathways. Federal drinking water standards set exposure limits at less than 4 millirem per year for all potential drinking water pathways.
The Massachusetts standards are stricter than those set by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees the nation’s fleet of commercial nuclear reactors.
State health officials request, in their letter, that Entergy submit a plan for how it will achieve compliance with state standards and how it will “provide assurances that those obligations will be met in the event the site is sold to a third party.”
Longtime Pilgrim opponent Mary Lampert told the advisory panel there were two initiatives that needed immediate support. Both are state bills pending in committee. If they are not reported out of committee by the May 9 deadline, the bills will be dead.
The first would require Entergy to continue to pay for emergency planning until all the radioactive spent fuel is transferred from the fuel pool into dry casks.
When the reactor shuts down, there will be more than 4,000 radioactive spent fuel rods either in the pool or in casks.
The second pending bill would boost Entergy’s required yearly payment for radiological monitoring. Lampert said the amount has been $180,000 annually since 1972. “The bill would up it to $500,000 annually,” Lampert said.
“This is an opportunity to address these two issues now,” Lampert said. “In about a year, that reactor will be closing.”
On April 26, the advisory panel will begin to vote on recommendations for the state based on its first year of discussion. The annual report will be turned in to the state in June.
— Follow Christine Legere on Twitter: @ChrisLegereCCT.
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