The company in charge of decommissioning a nuclear power plant on the Massachusetts shoreline should pursue “alternative methods of disposal” for the site’s spent fuel pool instead of releasing the irradiated wastewater into the Cape Cod Bay, the state’s Senate delegation said in a letter this week.
Although Holtec International has delayed plans to discharge the contents of Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station’s spent fuel pool into the nearby bay, Sens. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Reps. William Keating (D-Mass.) and Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) expressed their opposition to such an action in a Wednesday letter to the nuclear services company.
The Massachusetts congressional delegation and other stakeholders in December raised concerns about Holtec’s plan to dump around one million gallons of irradiated water from the Plymouth, Mass., plant’s spent fuel pool into the Cape Cod Bay, the lawmakers said. “Although we are pleased that Holtec responded by confirming that it would not dump radioactive material into Cape Cod Bay during 2022, this delay does not fully address the serious concerns that were raised,” the senators said.
Nuclear plants use spent fuel pools to cool off fuel rods that have recently been removed from the reactor. The cooling process takes several years, after which the irradiated spent fuel is transferred to dry storage casks.
The legislators urged Holtec to “pursue — and publicly share information about — alternative methods of disposal.” The company should consider shipping the wastewater to an offsite disposal facility such as EnergySolutions’ Grand View, Idaho.
“A commitment from Holtec to pursue alternative methods of disposal, including the solidification and shipment of this waste, would be a first step towards rebuilding trust and fulfilling the commitment to transparency with the Cape Cod Bay community,” the letter said.
The letter also encouraged Holtec to be transparent with Pilgrim’s surrounding community about its plans for decommissioning the site. “Without a firm commitment to these requests, Holtec will have failed to live up to its commitment to our communities to ensure an open and transparent decommissioning process,” the lawmakers said.
Holtec Decommissioning International, the Holtec-SNC Lavalin joint venture decommissioning Pilgrim, told RadWaste Monitor Thursday in an emailed statement that the company has been “consistent in our messaging … that over the next year we will be evaluating the regulatory approved options available, and no final decisions have been made.
“The EPA and NRC have strict regulations regarding the disposition of all effluents from any decommissioning site and Holtec confirms that these requirements will be followed in all states where we conduct operations,” the company said. “We wanted to share that in the near term the decision at Pilgrim has been made that the processed water will remain on site, safely stored, and that we will not discharge any processed water in 2022 while this evaluation is undertaken.”
The Cape Cod Times reported that Holtec first disclosed its proposal in November. A company official told the local paper at the time that the plan had been discussed with the Massachusetts state government, but that no decision had been made.
Camden, N.J.-based Holtec, which bought Pilgrim from Entergy in 2018, finished moving the plant’s spent fuel inventory into dry storage late last year, the company said in a year-end report Jan. 3. Holtec has said it could wrap up decommissioning at the site by 2027 or so.
