Separate samples of untreated wastewater from the Pilgrim Nuclear Generating Station in Plymouth, Mass., one collected by state and agencies and another by Holtec Decommissioning International, were found to be identical, state officials and the company said this week.
Massachusetts officials and Holtec briefed their findings to the local Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel, which met this week in Plymouth. Citizens and elected officials in the state, including Gov. Maura Healey (D) and Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), had asked for an independent assessment of the water Holtec planned to discharge into Cape Cod Bay. The company and the state collected samples separately and had them tested at the same lab. Holtec still needs a permit modification from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to complete the discharge. The company applied for the permit in April.
In March, Holtec said U.S. stock market conditions, which affect the value of Pilgrim’s decommissioning trust fund, and uncertainties associated with the EPA permit application prompted the company to delay the segmentation, or cutting up, of Pilgrim’s reactor vessel by four years. That will delay the partial release of the site to September 2031, the company told NRC in a regulatory filing.
Between 300 and 600 gallons of tritium-containing water leaked out of a holding tank at the Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant in Minnesota, about 50 miles northwest by road from Minneapolis near the Mississippi, plant operator Xcel Energy said in a statement delivered to the Monitcello, Minn., city government.
In the same statement, Xcel said it was about halfway done cleaning up a separate tritium spill from November.
SNC-Lavalin, Montreal, appointed Gary Rose to lead its Canadian nuclear business, the company announced Thursday in a press release. Rose will assume his role as executive vice president, Canada, nuclear when Bill Fox, the current Canadian nuclear lead, planned to retire.
Rose will among other things be in charge of construction of new reactors in Canada, including small modular reactors, the company said.
Oklo, a California-based developer of small modular reactors, announced plans to build two new nuclear units near the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio, according to a May 18 press release.
Oklo’s commercial power plants will provide up to 30 megawatts of non-carbon emitting electric power, and more than 50 megawatts of heating, with opportunities to expand, the company said of its agreement with the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative.
The project would benefit from a DOE Office of Nuclear Energy grant to support the advanced reactor technology development and the use of former nuclear sites, Oklo said. The company must still secure a combined construction and operations license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In January 2022, the commission rejected such a license for a similar reactor in Idaho, saying there were too many information gaps, but added Oklo can submit a complete application in the future.
