The commonwealth of Massachusetts has signaled it will request a hold on the anticipated approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week of the license transfer application for the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station.
Staff at the federal regulator indicated in a filing last week that it was prepared around Aug. 21 to authorize the transfer of Pilgrim’s operations and spent fuel storage licenses from plant owner Entergy to Holtec International. That approval would allow Entergy to sell the retired single-reactor facility on Cape Cod to Holtec, which would then assume all responsibility for decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management.
Massachusetts and local advocacy group Pilgrim Watch have both petitioned the NRC for intervention and a hearing in the license transfer proceeding. The agency has not ruled on those petitions, but last week the four commissioners rejected a request from the commonwealth for a 90-day stay in the proceeding while it conducts settlement talks with Entergy and Holtec.
On Aug. 15, attorneys for Massachusetts requested extra time to file an application to stay an NRC staff order approving the license transfer application. The request, if approved, would give Massachusetts up to 10 days to submit its application from the date of the order.
The NRC as of Tuesday morning had not ruled on the emergency time-enlargement motion.
The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office on Monday declined to comment on the case it would present in its stay request. There has been no public sign that the settlement talks have yet resolved the commonwealth’s concerns, which include the adequacy of funding to complete decommissioning at Pilgrim and whether sufficient environmental reviews have been conducted for the deal.
The commonwealth said it filed its Aug. 15 emergency motion in an “abundance of caution,” as there was ambiguity on when the otherwise five-day window to request the stay would begin – from the date of the upcoming order itself or the Aug. 13 date at which NRC staff stated it was preparing to issue the order. Attorneys for Massachusetts are also facing a heavy workload in other matters that could impact their capacity to work on the stay request, according to the motion.
Holtec, an energy technology company based in New Jersey, says it can complete decommissioning at Pilgrim within eight years with funding provided by its decommissioning trust fund. The fund currently holds roughly $1 billion. Pilgrim is one of several nuclear sites Holtec plans to buy for decommissioning, keeping some portion of their trust funds as profit once cleanup is complete.
