Massachusetts residents are again asking state officials to support calls for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to order that the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station cease operations, following the recent leak of an agency email disclosing candid details of an ongoing inspection at the plant.
Cape Downwinders, a group of residents from Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket, on Dec. 27 delivered a letter to Gov. Charlie Baker (R), Sen. Ed Markey (D), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D), state Attorney General Maura Healey, and several others. The group said the leaked email exposes a number of serious flaws at the troubled Massachusetts facility, including a poor safety climate, mismanagement, and a lack of plant maintenance, training and resources.
The regulator is conducting its third and final increased oversight inspection at the 44-year-old plant, which in 2015 was downgraded to Column 4 of the NRC’s Action Matrix, the lowest safety rating a nuclear facility can have while remaining in operation. Pilgrim in recent years has experienced a series of unplanned shutdowns and operational failures, and is due to be permanently closed in 2019. The NRC inspection, which involves 20 agency officials, is scheduled to wrap up on Jan. 13.
Last month, a 2,300-word email was inadvertently leaked to Cape Downwinders President Diane Turco. In the email, NRC inspection team leader Don Jackson detailed a long list of issues observed at Pilgrim, including concerns about operator Entergy’s safety culture.
“It doesn’t take much to connect the dots to see a pattern at Entergy of systemic Corporate Safety Culture problems,” Cape Downwinders’ letter reads. “Because PNPS is reportedly losing money and on the edge of retirement there is no financial incentive to invest in performance improvement. Entergy has recently closed or sold a surprising number of its nuclear fleet (Vermont Yankee, Pilgrim, Fitzpatrick, and Palisades) because they can’t compete. Going forward Entergy will spend as little money as possible at these plants.”
In response to the email leak, NRC Region 1 Administrator Daniel Dorman sent a letter to the town of Plymouth, Mass., explaining that Jackson’s observations were preliminary and “not intended to be generalizations of overall performance or plant conditions.”
