http://pilgrimwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/DecommissioningSlides_052019.pdf
AG seeks stay of Pilgrim license transfer
By Christine Legere
Posted Sep 4, 2019
Healey wants NRC to act on her months-old petition to intervene.
BOSTON — State Attorney General Maura Healey has asked federal regulators for a temporary stay on Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station’s approved license transfer until the Nuclear Regulatory Commission acts on a petition to intervene submitted months ago by her office.
The reasons given for the stay, submitted in an application filed right on Tuesday’s deadline, were identical to those the attorney general’s office has repeated to the NRC going back to February, when it first filed the petition to intervene: concerns over new owner Holtec International’s financial ability to decommission Pilgrim and the need for an environmental assessment of the site before decommissioning begins.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s staff approved the license transfer from Entergy Corp. to Holtec on Aug. 22, despite never having taken action on the state’s petition to intervene. The lack of action deprived the public its chance to weigh in, since a hearing would have been part of that process, the attorney general has said.
As part of the approval, Holtec also secured an exemption allowing use of the plant’s $1.1 billion decommissioning trust fund for spent fuel management and site restoration.
Healey said NRC staff violated the agency’s own regulations by failing to act on her petition to intervene within the necessary 45 days.
Staff also violated the National Environmental Policy Act by approving the transfer and allowing the use of the decommissioning fund even though “it is clear today that insufficient funds exist in the trust fund to cover all obligations necessary to protect the public and the environment,” the filing says.
Holtec, in a joint endeavor with SNC-Lavalin called Comprehensive Decommissioning International, plans to buy and decommission six reactors at nearly the same time.
The company has said it can move spent nuclear fuel into massive casks, dismantle the reactor and surrounding buildings and clean up each of the sites in eight years.
The attorney general questioned the reputations of Holtec and SNC-Lavalin, noting their past brushes with the law. Both companies have had bribery charges lodged against them.
Holtec and SNC-Lavalin “are poised to embark on an unprecedented effort to decommission six nuclear reactors at four different generating stations in four different states in a time frame never achieved, let alone attempted,” Healey’s application states.
Even worse, she wrote, Holtec’s cash flow analysis on Pilgrim was based on “the indefensible assumption” that the federal government will have completely removed all spent fuel from the site by 2063, so no more money for fuel management will be needed. To date, there is no place to move the spent fuel.
The exemption to tap the trust fund for activities other than decommissioning “constitutes an abdication of the NRC duty to ensure taxpayer funds are used for their intended purpose,” the filing says. The money in Pilgrim’s decommissioning fund came from ratepayers, the attorney general pointed out.
“The Commonwealth and its ratepayers have a stake in how the funds are used,” she wrote.
The filing also raises concerns over impacts on local roads and the noise, dust and air pollution from trucks hauling waste from Pilgrim’s site. About 1,400 trips are anticipated, but it could go as high as 3,000, she said.
Without a stay, shipments of old waste on the site could begin immediately “and cause immediate irreparable harm to local and state infrastructure, and local health, safety and environment,” the filing says.
Although the public has money and health on the line if the stay is not granted, Entergy and Holtec have little to lose if it is, Healey argues. Any financial harm either company might suffer would be “self-inflicted,” the attorney general said, since Entergy and Holtec rushed forward with the plant’s sale just two business days after the federal transfer was granted.
The NRC declined to comment on the attorney general’s latest filing, citing pending litigation.
Patrick O’Brien, spokesman for Comprehensive Decommissioning International, issued a written statement:
“The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has concluded that Holtec met the required regulatory, legal, technical and financial requirements to qualify as licensee. While we respect the petitioner’s rights to file legal motions, we are not going to comment on any specific legal motions or action.”
The citizens group Pilgrim Watch filed a similar application to stay the license transfer Monday. The Duxbury-based group also had filed an initial petition to intervene in February, which was never acted on.
Timeline of transfer dispute
1999: Entergy Corp. buys Pilgrim from Boston Edison.
2015: Entergy announces plan to close Pilgrim by June 1, 2019.
August 2018: Entergy announces it will sell Pilgrim to Holtec.
November 2018: Entergy and Holtec file with Nuclear Regulatory Commission for license transfer.
February 2019: State attorney general files petition to intervene in transfer.
July: Attorney general asks for 90-day hold on license review to reach settlement with Holtec.
Aug. 13: NRC staff announces intent to approve transfer.
Aug. 14: Five-member NRC denies request for 90-day stay.
Aug. 21: Attorney general sends NRC letter questioning Holtec’s truthfulness.
Aug 22: NRC staff issues order for license transfer from Pilgrim to Holtec.
Aug. 27: Entergy announces its sale of Pilgrim to Holtec.
Sept. 3: Attorney general submits application for stay of transfer.
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