Three members of Massachusetts’ congressional delegation want the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to keep emergency preparedness and planning regulations in place for the retired Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station.
Staff at the agency has already recommended that Pilgrim be exempt from certain regulations following the end of operations and removal of used fuel from the reactor. Power company Entergy submitted the request to the NRC on Aug. 9, a few weeks before completing its sale of the one-reactor plant to Holtec International for decommissioning.
If those exemptions are granted, Pilgrim would not be required to have emergency planning zones, an off-site emergency response plan, connections with local and state emergency agencies, and procedures to notify the public in the event of an emergency, according to the Aug. 30 letter to NRC Chairman Kristine Svinicki from Sen. Edward Markey, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Rep. William Keating (all D-Mass.).
“If an event beyond the design basis of the Pilgrim plant was to occur, this could result in a loss of cooling to the spent fuel pools, triggering a hydrogen explosion and a release of radioactive gas — like that seen in the Fukushima Daiichi disaster,” the three wrote.
The NRC said Tuesday that it would reply directly to Warren, Markey, and Keating, and otherwise declined to comment.
The site’s NRC license was transferred from Entergy to Holtec on Aug. 22. Holtec is now responsible for decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management at Pilgrim, which shut down on May 31. The company says it can complete decommissioning in eight years within the funding provided by the decommissioning trust for Pilgrim. Holtec predicts a $1.134 billion decommissioning budget, with slightly more than $1 billion currently in its trust.
In February, the commonwealth of Massachusetts and the local citizens’ group Pilgrim Watch requested a hearing on intervening in the license transfer. Among their concerns were Holtec’s financial viability to finish decommissioning. Despite the license transfer being complete, the NRC can hold a hearing with the possibility of retroactively nullifying the license transfer. The NRC has not decided whether to hold such a hearing.
