The company in charge of decommissioning a shuttered Massachusetts nuclear power plant is pulling together the required information for a federal permit modification that would let the company discharge irradiated wastewater from the facility, a spokesperson said this week.
Holtec International, which is currently dismantling Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, is “preparing the modification request” for the Plymouth, Mass., plant’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a company spokesperson told RadWaste Monitor via email Monday.
Holtec is weighing a proposal to release the plant’s radioactive spent fuel pool water into the nearby Cape Cod Bay. The EPA, which governs NPDES permits for nuclear power plants and other facilities, has said that Pilgrim’s permit as currently written does not allow for such a discharge, and that it would have to be changed.
Holtec still has “some data to collect as part of that process” before it can submit a modification request, the spokesperson said Monday.
The Camden, N.J., nuclear services company is working to alter Pilgrim’s NPDES permit after a series of scathing letters from EPA warning Holtec not to discharge any wastewater. In its Dec. 5 correspondence, the agency raised concerns about comments made by Holtec senior compliance manager Dave Noyes during a Nov. 28 Plymouth community meeting that “appear[ed] to contemplate the possibility of intentional noncompliance” with the NPDES permit.
Holtec has defended itself, saying in a Dec. 23 letter to EPA that those comments were “misconstrued” and that “no such unauthorized discharges are planned” from the Pilgrim plant.
Meanwhile, the irradiated water at Pilgrim should still be in use for decommissioning purposes through the first quarter of this year, the Holtec spokesperson said Monday. Holtec acquired Pilgrim from former operator Entergy Corp. in 2018, and has said that it could finish decommissioning the site by 2027 or so.
Local, state and federal stakeholders have complained about a possible discharge. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who has an anti-nuclear bent, said in a December statement that Holtec “has a legal duty to comply with federal regulations and a moral duty to heed the concerns” of Pilgrim community residents.
Massachusetts state Sen. Susan Moran (D), who represents Plymouth and nearby Barnstable, Mass., sponsored language in a state spending bill that, if made law, would have barred Holtec from making any discharges from Pilgrim until 2024 or so. Gov. Charlie Baker (R) vetoed the provision, calling it “duplicative.”
