Plymouth seeks extended benefits as Pilgrim closes

By Christine Legere 
Posted Nov 29, 2018 

Land, annual payments on list of requests for new plant owner.

PLYMOUTH — With Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station set to shut down in six months, Plymouth officials are scrambling to get some current financial commitments extended to ease the loss of benefits the town has enjoyed since the plant went online in 1972.

Holtec International is looking to buy Pilgrim from current owner Entergy Corp. once the plant shuts down May 31, and both parties already have filed a request for a license transfer with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Plymouth Town Manager Melissa Arrighi said it was important that items on the selectmen’s negotiating priority list be settled before the license transfer takes place.

“We have dealt with Entergy for a long time, and now there is a new LLC coming to take over,” Arrighi said. “We believe some things need to be addressed prior to them becoming our neighbor. We want to get all the people together and say, ‘We welcome you as a new partner, but here are these issues.’”

Topping the priority list is negotiation for the transfer of about 1,600 acres of “pristine forest” that are part of the Pilgrim site but outside the area involved in nuclear power generation, according to Arrighi.

Although the town has right of first refusal on the acreage, leaders say they should get it at no charge.

“It’s a central area to the community, and the decisions on its use should be made by the town,” Arrighi said. There has always been an understanding with Entergy that the town would be given the land, she said.

The town wants the transfer of title and ownership to take place within 30 days of the license transfer to Holtec.

“The company can take it as a tax deduction,” said Sean Mullin, a Plymouth businessman and chairman of the Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel. “It’s a write-off.”

Also on the selectmen’s list of items to negotiate with Holtec is a continuation of annual $9.5 million payments in lieu of taxes until six months after all nuclear spent fuel has been transferred into dry casks.

Holtec expects that task will be complete in 2022.

Town officials also want Holtec to continue to provide $2.6 million annually to maintain the current level of emergency planning and $300,000 to maintain current levels of charitable support until six months after spent fuel is in dry casks.

Officials would then renegotiate all payments with the expectation that money would continue to flow into the town until the spent fuel is moved to “a remote repository.”

To date, no permanent repository has been identified. Holtec is moving forward with federal review of a proposed interim site storage facility in New Mexico and has said Pilgrim’s spent fuel would be shipped and stored there. 

“These are small numbers when you’re talking about a no-bid $1.1 billion decommissioning project,” Mullin said of the annual payments and land donation. Since Holtec is trying to establish itself as the leader in nuclear plant decommissioning, it would be worthwhile for the company to agree to those financial commitments to create goodwill, he said.

“They need to get on the phone with the town right now,” Mullin said. “This is an opportunity for them to sit down with the town and the region and be open and reasonable. As I told them, we can be your best recommendation going forward, or we can be your worst nightmare.”

Other priority items on the list include written assurance and financial guarantee that Holtec will provide sufficient funding to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to cover off-site radiological monitoring and testing and that it will repair or replace dry casks that crack or leak; written and financial assurance that it will remediate and remove any structure materials and soils that contain detectable levels of tritium even if the levels fall below NRC requirements; that a mutually agreed-upon level of security remain to protect spent fuel; and written and financial guarantees that a dedicated amount of money will be set aside to support job retraining for current Entergy employees, with the goal of retraining them in Plymouth.

https://www.capecodtimes.com/news/20181129/plymouth-seeks-extended-benefits-as-pilgrim-closes?utm_source=SFMC&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=GHM_Daily_Newsletter_Cape_Cod_Times&utm_content=GTDT_CCT

Absolving ourselves of responsibility for cheap Wal-Mart Clothes

112 killed in fire at Bangladesh garment factory

Bangladeshi firefighters douse last of the smoke at the garment factory outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, Sunday Nov. 25, 2012. At least 112 people were killed in a late Saturday night fire that raced through the multi-story garment factory just outside of Bangladesh's capital, an official said Sunday. (AP Photo/ khurshed Rinku)

By JULHAS ALAM

Associated Press / November 25, 2012

 

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Fire raced through a garment factory that supplies major retailers in the West, killing at least 112 people, many of whom were trapped by the flames because the eight-story building lacked emergency exits, an official said Sunday.

The blaze broke out late Saturday at a factory operated just outside Bangladesh’s capital of Dhaka by Tazreen Fashions Ltd., a subsidiary of the Tuba Group, which makes products for Wal-Mart and other companies in the U.S. and Europe.

Firefighters recovered at least 100 bodies from the factory, Maj. Mohammad Mahbub, fire department operations director, told The Associated Press. He said 12 other people who were injured after they jumped from the building to escape died at hospitals.

Local media reported that up to 124 people were killed. The cause of the blaze was not immediately clear, and authorities ordered an investigation.

Army soldiers and border guards were sent to help police keep order as thousands of onlookers and anxious relatives of the factory workers gathered, Mahbub said.

Tazreen was given a ‘‘high risk’’ safety rating after a May 16, 2011, audit conducted by an ‘‘ethical sourcing’’ assessor for Wal-Mart, according to a document posted on the Tuba Group’s website. It did not specify what led to the rating.

Wal-Mart spokesman Kevin Gardner said online documents indicating an orange or ‘‘high risk’’ assessment after the May 2011 inspection and a yellow or ‘‘medium risk’’ report after an inspection in August 2011 appeared to pertain to the factory where the fire broke out. The August 2011 letter said Wal-Mart would conduct another inspection within one year.

Gardner said it was not clear if that inspection had been conducted or whether the factory was still making products for Wal-Mart.

If a factory is rated ‘‘orange’’ three times in a two-year period, Wal-Mart won’t place any orders for one year. The May 2011 report was the first orange rating for the factory.

Neither Tazreen’s owner nor Tuba Group officials could be reached for comment.
 

The Tuba Group is a major Bangladeshi garment exporter whose clients also include Carrefour and IKEA, according to its website. Its factories export garments to the U.S., Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands, among other countries. The Tazreen factory, which opened in 2009 and employed about 1,700 people, made polo shirts, fleece jackets and T-shirts.

Bangladesh has some 4,000 garment factories, many without proper safety measures. The country annually earns about $20 billion from exports of garment products, mainly to the U.S. and Europe.

In its 2012 Global Responsibility report, Wal-Mart said that ‘‘fire safety continues to be a key focus for brands and retailers sourcing from Bangladesh.’’ Wal-Mart said it ceased working with 49 factories in Bangladesh in 2011 because of fire safety issues, and was working with its supplier factories to phase out production from buildings deemed high risk.
 

At the factory, relatives of the workers frantically looked for their loved ones. Sabina Yasmine said she saw the body of her daughter-in-law, but had seen no trace of her son, who also worked there.

‘‘Oh, Allah, where’s my soul? Where’s my son?’’ wailed Yasmine, who works at another factory in the area. ‘‘I want the factory owner to be hanged. For him, many have died, many have gone.’’
 

Mahbub said the fire broke out on the ground floor, which was used as a warehouse, and spread quickly to the upper floors. Many workers who retreated to the roof were rescued, he said. But he said that with no emergency exits leading outside the building, many victims were trapped, and firefighters recovered 69 bodies from the second floor alone.
 

‘‘The factory had three staircases, and all of them were down through the ground floor,’’ Mahbub said. ‘‘So the workers could not come out when the fire engulfed the building.’’

‘‘Had there been at least one emergency exit through outside the factory, the casualties would have been much lower,’’ he said.

Many victims were burned beyond recognition. The bodies were laid out in rows at a school nearby. Many of them were handed over to families; unclaimed victims were taken to Dhaka Medical College for identification.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed shock at the loss of so many lives.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association said it would stand by the victims’ families.

 

 

Regional Energy Roundtables #3 Tragic, But Reality

One of the most striking things about attending the Regional Energy Roundtable was the amount of preparation and consideration other municipalities and utilities have given the surrounding issues.

.

Several spoke of policies designed to forgive arrearages of utility bills to those who fail to quallify for LIHEAP, have exhausted benefits or emergency grant programs.

.

And municipalities have laid a framework to provide for those who have exhausted funding and have no heat or to allow residents to turn down their home heat during the day, while staying warm elsewhere. Some solutions have included warm rooms during the day, shelters, use of municipal buildings and reduced rate arrangements with local motels. Consideration has been given to 'After Hours' contact information, publicizing the available assistance and cooperative agreements with neighboring towns that have additional building capacity that can be utilized.

.

Escalating fossil fuel costs pose an alarming risk to the most vulnerable among us who often have to choose between food, medicine and heat. The clear vision and planning to avoid the tragic consequences and provide winter warmth defines local government.

.

Notice the silence in Middleboro?