The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has determined that further action is not immediately necessary to ensure safe operations of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts.
The finding follows a supplemental inspection that ended this year following three NRC site visits to the nuclear plant. “The NRC determined that programs and processes at PNPS adequately support nuclear safety and that PNPS should remain in Column 4” of the agency’s Action Matrix, the lowest possible safety rating for an operational nuclear facility, NRC Region I Administrator Daniel Dorman wrote in a May 10 letter to John Dent, site vice president at Pilgrim for Entergy Nuclear Operations.
The 45-year-old single-reactor facility on Cape Cod Bay has experienced a number of operational issues and unplanned shutdowns dating to 2013, which led to its current NRC safety rating. The plant is scheduled to close permanently on May 31, 2019, but local residents and officials have pressed for an expedited shutdown.
The NRC inspection identified 11 safety findings, only one of which rose above the level of very low safety significance, or “Green.” The preliminary “Greater than Green” determination involved Entergy’s failure to correctly install and monitor a component of an emergency diesel generator, which then failed and remained offline for more than the 14 days allowed by the NRC.
The regulator is considering escalated enforcement in connection with the incident, Dorman wrote.
“If the final significance is determined to be “Greater than Green,” this issue, in and of itself, would not cause a Column 5 example to be met or exceeded,” NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said by email Thursday. “The NRC continuously compares Pilgrim performance to the Column 5 examples and these continuous assessments consider all indicators of plant performance, including inspection results, performance indicators and plant events. If at any time NRC determines that performance has declined to an unacceptable level, the NRC will take additional regulatory action up to and including the issuance of a shutdown order.”
Entergy must also submit a revised comprehensive recovery plan to the NRC. After reviewing the updated document and conducting additional evaluations of Pilgrim, the agency will decide whether to upgrade the site’s safety rating, Dorman said.
The state of Nevada must have a voice in a lawsuit demanding that the federal government move ahead with plans for a permanent nuclear waste repository in the state, according to the Nevada Attorney General’s Office.
Texas sued the Department of Energy and other federal agencies in March, seeking to force Washington to promptly obey the 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act mandate to build a final resting place for commercial and defense nuclear waste, and the bill’s 1987 amendment that the site be located at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
The lawsuit is now in mediation, with a second session scheduled for May 15. However, in the meantime, Nevada, the Nuclear Energy Institute, and a number of utilities have filed to intervene in opposition to some or all of Texas’ demands. Nevada leaders broadly want to stop anything that would promote shipment of nuclear waste to their state; that means supporting the federal government in this instance even as the Trump administration focuses on Yucca Mountain as the solution to the nation’s waste quandary.
Texas has opposed all motions to intervene, arguing in court documents last month that Nevada is simply trying to stop construction of Yucca Mountain while the Lone Star State’s intent is to end a decades-long impasse on nuclear waste management.
In its motion, the Texas Attorney General’s Office said the state “is playing football; but Nevada wants to play baseball.” The Nevada AG fired back with its own sports analogy on May 1.
“Texas’s sports analogy is incomplete,” according to the latest motion. “Nevada and the Federal Respondents are in the middle innings of a contest over Yucca Mountain, but Texas fails to acknowledge that it has been a disinterested spectator for over three decades. Conveniently now that its former governor has been confirmed as the Secretary of Energy, Texas takes its first swing to transplant the long-running ‘baseball game’ onto its proverbial ‘football field.’”
Ruling in favor of Texas would usurp the federal government’s authority to consider the many objections and formal contentions Nevada has filed against Yucca Mountain, according to the Nevada Attorney General’s Office. And Nevada must have a say, as it cannot trust federal agencies to protect the state’s interests, the motion adds.
From The Wires
From The Mercury News: Consumer organization warns that Pacific Gas & Electric has requested meetings with California Public Utilities Commission members in hopes of securing higher utility rates to fund decommissioning of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, which is scheduled to close by 2025.
From the San Diego Union-Tribune: At community meeting for closed San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, Holtec International touts its plans for consolidated interim storage of spent reactor fuel from nuclear plants.
From The Voice: The Michigan cities of Marysville and St. Clair approve new resolutions against a proposed Canadian geological repository for low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste near Lake Huron.
