By John Stang
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week moved Entergy’s soon-to-be-retired Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station out of the lowest safety ranking allowed for an operational power plant.
“We noted several areas of sustained performance improvement including: (1) significant reduction in human performance- related events that adversely affected plant safety; (2) more effective and timely corrective action program implementation; (3) improved risk recognition and conservative decision-making; and (4) marked improvement in the site’s safety culture,” NRC Region I Administrator David Lew in a March 4 letter to Entergy regarding the annual assessment for Pilgrim.
The agency had indicated last month it was preparing to elevate the Massachusetts power plant from Column 4 to Column 1 of the NRC Action Matrix.
The agency in September 2015 placed the single-reactor plant into Column 4, multiple/repetitive degraded cornerstone, the lowest rank under which a nuclear power facility can remain operational, following a series of safety errors and unplanned shutdowns dating to 2013. At that point it had been in Column 3, degraded performance, for more than 15 months.
Until this week, Pilgrim was the only U.S. nuclear plant in Column 4. It has now been returned to standard monitoring.
Since August 2017, Entergy worked through 156 safety improvement measures laid out in a confirmatory action letter from the NRC. The agency in December conducted its last inspection at the Cape Cod site to ensure the New Orleans-based power company had met its final 40 commitments regarding nuclear safety culture and adherence to procedure.
“Each of our 600 employees committed themselves to returning the plant to the NRC’s top regulatory category, which required our performance and corrective actions to undergo thousands of hours of enhanced reviews and inspections over the last two years,” Brian Sullivan, Pilgrim site vice president, said in a press release.
Entergy plans to close Pilgrim by May 31 after nearly 47 years of operation. It has already filed an application to transfer the operations and spent fuel storage licenses to Holtec International. The New Jersey energy technology company would then assume ownership of the plant’s decommissioning trust and all responsibility for decommissioning, site restoration, and spent fuel management.
The Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office and the nongovernmental Pilgrim Watch have petitioned the NRC to intervene in the license transfer review.
“Since Pilgrim was already slated to be permanently retired by June, I’m sure some wondered whether we would return to normal oversight before shutdown,” Sullivan said. “The professionalism and pride of our employees was evident every single day, and along with strong support from our company’s nuclear division, are the reasons we have seen greatly improved performance at the site.”
The NRC will keep up regular inspections of the site through the shutdown, including having a resident inspector there until an undetermined time after May 31.
“The NRC will be implementing quarterly assessment reviews, consistent with the guidance contained in IMC 0305, ‘Operating Reactor Assessment Program,’ to more closely monitor and review overall plant activities to assure there are no issues emerging that might indicate a decline in focus on the safe operation of the facility.,” Lew wrote in his letter to Sullivan.
