The newly-elected governor of Massachusetts last week signaled that she would stand against a proposal from Holtec International that would see irradiated wastewater from a shuttered nuclear power plant released into the Cape Cod Bay, local media reported.
Speaking at a community event in South Yarmouth, Mass., Gov. Maura Healey (D) said that the Bay State has to “stand strong in the face of Holtec” over the company’s plans to discharge spent fuel pool water from Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, local paper the Cape Cod Times reported Jan. 6.
“I will hold them to their agreements, which do not allow for dumping,” said Healey, the former state attorney general who was inaugurated as governor Jan. 7.
Camden, N.J.-based Holtec purchased the Pilgrim plant from Entergy Corp. in 2018. As state attorney general, Healey challenged — and later settled over — the facility’s sale in federal court.
Holtec’s proposed discharges have been the center of fierce debate over the Plymouth, Mass., Pilgrim plant. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has said that such action would not be allowed under the facility’s agency-stewarded National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit.
Holtec, meanwhile, has said that is putting together a request for a permit modification that would make wastewater discharges possible. The company will still need to use Pilgrim’s wastewater for decommissioning purposes through the first quarter of this year.
The company has said that it could wrap up decommissioning at Pilgrim by 2027 or so.
