Holtec recently filed a permit modification request with the Environmental Protection Agency aimed at assuaging the agency’s reservations about whether the company is allowed to discharge irradiated wastewater into Cape Cod Bay in Massachusetts.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) posted Holtec’s permit modification request, and some supporting documents, online this week. The company filed the request March 31. The agency in December raised concerns about Holtec’s plans to discharge water from the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station’s spent fuel pool into the bay.
It’s the latest development in a suddenly hot issue that, while longstanding practice in the nuclear industry, has captured the ire of locals, environmental activists, and sympathetic politicians at all levels of government.
Holtec has said discharges from Pilgrim’s spent fuel pool could begin early this year. The Jupiter, Fla.-based company acquired Pilgrim from Entergy Corp. in 2018. Holtec has said that it could finish decommissioning the plant by 2027.
