New state rules restricting discharge of irradiated water will delay cleanup of nuclear plants in Massachusetts and New York by four and eight years, respectively, Holtec International told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week.
These prohibitions mean the partial site release date of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts will slip to Sept. 24, 2035 from Sept. 24, 2031 Holtec, Jupiter, Fla., told NRC in a regulatory filing dated Thursday and uploaded to NRC’s website on Friday.
For the Indian Point Nuclear Energy Center in Buchanan, N.Y., partial site release will slip to July 9, 2041 from July 9, 2033, according to Holtec’s filing.
Partial site release means that some, but not all, of a former nuclear power plant site can be turned back over to a landowner for other uses. Even after partial release, Holtec would continue work at both sites until the 2060s, according to Thursday’s notice to the NRC.
Holtec bought Pilgrim in 2019 and Indian Point in 2022. Following environmental and local activism, supported at times by federal lawmakers, Massachusetts’ governor used her executive authority to block discharges into Cape Cod Bay from Pilgrim. New York, on the other hand, passed a new law to prohibit discharges from Indian Point into the Hudson.
Both states focused on wastewater resulting from Holtec’s decommissioning, not wastewater generated by plant operations.
Massachusetts struck first. In July, the administration of Gov. Maura Healey (D) ruled that discharges from Pilgrim would violate the state’s Ocean Sanctuaries Act.
In August, New York passed a law banning discharges from Indian Point into the Hudson River, setting up a set of tiered fines for first and subsequent offenses. Indian Point is about 50 miles upriver from downtown Manhattan.
In both cases, Holtec has said federal law preempts the state bans. The company had sought permit modifications from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to complete planned wastewater discharges from the two sites.
“Holtec is evaluating all available options to address the disposition of water at both sites, including pursuing legal remedies, all of which will result in impacts to the decommissioning schedules,” the company wrote in Thursday’s filing with the NRC.
