A watchdog group fired back at Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s staff on Tuesday, saying it would be wrong for the regulator to deny a hearing over potentially relaxing post-Fukushima safety rules at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station.
NRC staff last week recommended the commission deny Pilgrim Watch and seven other petitioners’ request for a public hearing concerning plant operator Entergy’s request to forgo installing a hardened containment venting system (HCVS) at the Massachusetts plant’s containment buildings. The new HCVS is required under NRC guidelines intended to strengthen nuclear plant safety in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster in Japan. Pilgrim features the same boiling-water reactor design as the three reactors that melted down at Fukushima.
In its formal response to NRC on Tuesday, Pilgrim Watch said that between 2013 and 2015 Entergy repeatedly told the agency that it “could and would comply” with a spring 2017 deadline to install the vent system. However, Entergy filed its relaxation request in November 2015, asking that the agency delay the deadline, according to Tuesday’s filing. The extension to Dec. 31, 2019, which is the subject of the proceedings, would allow Entergy to avoid installation entirely, as Pilgrim is slated to shut down by June 2019.
NRC staff last week said Pilgrim Watch and its co-petitioners 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 Atomic Energy Act or agency regulations, advising against turning the proceeding into an “amorphous public extravaganza.”
The petitioners argue that Entergy’s plan is effectively a license amendment request, not a “relaxation” request, as NRC has termed it.
“(The Atomic Energy Act’s) hearing requirement cannot be avoided by simply giving what is clearly a ‘license amendment’ a different name,” the petitioners argued Tuesday.
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. The NRC expects to reach a decision on the Entergy’s request before Pilgrim restarts following its compliance outage late this winter.
