Power provider Entergy on Sunday said it has begun the final refueling of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, just over two years before the Massachusetts facility closes for good.
Workers began to power down the 45-year-old plant ahead of what will be its 21st and last refueling, according to a press statement. The utility expects to spend $54 million on the process, which will include hiring over 800 temporary workers to support the 620 full-time staff in checking, swapping out, and upgrading hundreds of parts at the facility near Plymouth.
Entergy said the schedule for resuming power production from Pilgrim “is business information that can’t be shared.”
Pilgrim is scheduled to close on May 31, 2019. Local activists have demanded it be closed earlier, noting the series of operational failures and unplanned shutdowns dating to 2013 that led the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to in 2015 place the plant on Column 4 of the agency’s Action Matrix, which is the lowest rating for an operating nuclear reactor.
Cape Downwinders, a group representing residents from Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket, rallied Sunday outside Pilgrim to protest the plant’s refueling.
