Following the leak of a Nuclear Regulatory Commission email disclosing troubling inspection findings at the downgraded Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, Massachusetts leaders are demanding a public meeting with the regulator to discuss safety at the plant.
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, the state’s two senators and nine representatives, and a long list of local lawmakers penned a letter to NRC Chairman Stephen Burns on Wednesday, stating that the email leak raised “legitimate concerns” about public safety. The group highlighted recent operational issues at Pilgrim and blasted operator Entergy’s requests to forgo increased NRC-mandated safety measures at the 44-year-old facility. NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said by email Thursday that the agency is carefully considering the request and will respond in a timely manner.
The lawmakers’ request follows a separate Dec. 9 letter from the town of Plymouth requesting a public meeting with the NRC, which the regulator denied, stating that the leaked inspection details were preliminary and do not communicate any concrete findings about overall plant performance.
The NRC is conducting its third and final increased oversight inspection at the Plymouth plant, which the regulator in 2015 downgraded to Column 4 of its Action Matrix, the lowest safety rating a nuclear facility can have while remaining in operation. The facility is due to close in 2019. The controversial 2,300-word email from NRC inspection team leader Don Jackson was inadvertently sent to Diane Turco, president of the Cape Downwinders, a group of residents from Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket. Sheehan said a Region I project engineer mistakenly forwarded the message, which included a long list of issues observed at the plant, including concerns about Entergy’s safety culture.
The Downwinders have latched onto Jackson’s admission that the NRC is “observing current indications of a safety culture problem that a bunch of talking probably won’t fix,” igniting a proverbial firestorm through email blasts to stakeholders and media. In the past year, the Downwinders have held a number of protests outside the Massachusetts State House asking that lawmakers demand an immediate NRC shutdown at Pilgrim. The group will meet again for a protest at 1 p.m. Monday at 600 Rocky Hill Road in Plymouth, just outside the nuclear plant.
Entergy spokesman Patrick O’Brien said by email Wednesday: “We have worked hard to address the issues that led to station performance decline and look forward to demonstrating to the NRC that we have made significant progress in these areas through the inspection process. Until the results of the 95003 Phase ‘C’ inspection and the confirmatory action letter are released, we will not comment on the inspection.”
The NRC inspection at Pilgrim, which is tentatively scheduled to wrap up on Jan. 13, involves 20 agency inspectors and is a relatively rare occurrence. Sheehan said the agency has conducted about a dozen such inspections in the past 15 years.
Jackson said in a recent press briefing, prior to the email leak, that the inspection would focus on the plant’s safety culture. In the leaked email, Jackson said inspectors tried to hold a safety culture meeting with plant security, but no one showed up, as the site’s security adviser “forgot he needed to support it.” He added that Pilgrim staff seemed overwhelmed by the basic task of running the station, and that some operators claim the inspection is impacting their work. He cited various noncompliances, poor maintenance, poor engineering practices, and equipment-reliability issues.
“The team is really struggling to figure out what all of this means,” Jackson wrote. “The licensee staff seems to say the right things, and they are genuinely energized about improving. We believe that there are some incremental improvements that look bigger than they actually are to the licensee staff. The corrective actions in the recovery plan seem to have been hastily developed and implemented, and some have been circumvented as they were deemed too hard to complete.”
In his letter to Plymouth officials, NRC Regional Administrator Daniel Dorman called Jackson’s email “less-than-fully developed information” that is not unusual for the early stages of such an inspection.
“I truly apologize for any distress this may have caused,” Dorman wrote. “Let me assure you that Pilgrim is operating safely. Our inspectors continuously evaluate plant safety as issues are identified and Pilgrim remains safe.”
Dorman declined Plymouth’s request for a meeting because the inspection is ongoing, and it would be inappropriate to discuss “pre-decisional” information in public at this time. After the inspection concludes, the NRC will hold a public meeting in Plymouth to discuss the final results, Dorman said.
Pilgrim has experienced a long list of operational issues, including various unplanned shutdowns, dating to 2013. The plant was shut down unexpectedly for two weeks in September, when Entergy reported complications with a fluctuating feedwater regulating valve, which caused excessive water levels in the facility’s reactor vessel. The plant’s most recent shutdown occurred in December, when Entergy identified steam leaks on three main steam isolation valves, which are used to prevent radioactivity leaks into the environment during nuclear accidents. One of the valves was declared inoperable and had to be removed from service. Entergy unsuccessfully attempted to fix the leak before shutting the plant down to make repairs, according to Sheehan.
“Our Resident Inspectors assigned to Pilgrim observed the reactor shutdown and have closely followed the repair work and restart planning,” Sheehan said by email.
The Downwinders claim that Pilgrim’s safety culture issues are tied to Entergy’s struggling nuclear fleet, arguing that financial incentives are outweighing safety. The company has cited economics in all four of its recent shutdown decisions: Pilgrim, the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant, the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in New York (which has tentatively been sold to Exelon and could remain in operation), and the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in Michigan.
