Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff on Monday recommended the agency deny a watchdog group’s call for a public hearing on Entergy’s request to forgo certain NRC Fukushima lessons learned program requirements at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station.
The utility is asking the agency to relax requirements for installing a hardened containment venting system (HCVS) at the Massachusetts plant’s containment buildings. The HCVS, a post-Fukushima reform, allows operators to remove heat and pressure and prevent severe damage to reactor cores. Pilgrim features the same boiling-water reactor design as the three reactors that melted down at Fukushima in 2011. The Dec. 31, 2019, extension would allow Entergy to forgo some Fukushima requirements entirely, as Pilgrim is slated to shut down by June 1, 2019.
NRC staff’s response recommended the regulator deny the request from Pilgrim Watch and seven other petitioners for a hearing on the grounds that the groups failed to establish “standing” for a hearing or to submit an “admissible contention.” The response says the organizations are not entitled to a hearing under the under the Atomic Energy Act or agency regulations.
“The commission has reasoned that ‘allowing NRC hearings on claims for stronger enforcement remedies risks’ turning focused regulatory proceedings into amorphous public extravaganzas,” the NRC staff recommendation says.
The petitioners challenged Entergy’s request on Sept. 7, saying the utility is essentially requesting a license amendment, and therefore should follow procedures for a license amendment request, which allows for a public hearing. The groups also argued that NRC relaxation of the HCVS requirement would “deny citizens and communities the protection a reliable severe accident capable wetwell venting system would provide during the two remaining years of Pilgrim’s operations.”
Pilgrim Watch’s Mary Lampert said by email Wednesday: “The issue seemingly forgotten is that the vent order amends the licensees of the reactors it pertains to, (boiling-water-reactor) Mark I and Mark II. Therefore Entergy should be required to file a request to amend its license, which requires a hearing that they seek to avoid. NRC should try enforcing its rules.”
Replies to both NRC’s and Entergy’s filings are due to NRC on Oct. 10. Lampert said the groups will weigh their options at that point. The NRC expects to reach a decision on the Entergy’s request before Pilgrim restarts following its compliance outage late this winter, according to agency spokesman Scott Burnell.
Entergy in its June 24 request to the NRC noted that the regulator has granted similar relaxation at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in New Jersey. Entergy also argued that the plant’s current wetwell venting system, with modifications from 2014, meets the Fukushima requirements, with the exceptions of three areas: radiation monitoring; dedicated 24-hour power for HCVS valves; and operation, testing, inspection, and maintenance.
Entergy described the request as “an acceptable approach that is reasonable, considering the planned short term facility operation through 2019.” The utility has proposed two alternative approaches to addressing the first two exceptions, and requested that the NRC allow it to forgo the third, arguing that the abbreviated timeline doesn’t require detailed plans for HCVS testing and inspection.
The petitioners that joined Pilgrim Watch are: Beyond Nuclear, Pilgrim Coalition, Pilgrim Legislative Advisory Committee, Cape Downwinders, Cape Downwinders Cooperative, Massachusetts Downwinders, and Citizens Awareness Network.
