Happy Friday, nuke-watchers. Before the weekend starts, here are a couple of other stories that RadWaste Monitor was tracking this week.
Testing reveals non-nuclear pollutants in Pilgrim wastewater
A state test on spent fuel pool wastewater planned for release from a Massachusetts nuclear power plant under decommissioning revealed non-nuclear pollutants, local media reported this week.
Holtec International, which is decommissioning Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant, and the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) presented the test’s findings during a meeting of the plant’s community-led nuclear decommissioning advisory panel Monday, NPR affiliate Cape and Islands reported.
Per the Plymouth, Mass., plant’s environmental permits, the presence of non-nuclear pollutants in Pilgrim’s wastewater will prevent Holtec from releasing the water as planned into the nearby Cape Cod Bay, for the time being. The company told the advisory panel this week that the wastewater would be filtered to comply with environmental regulations before any sort of discharge.
The DEP’s test results are good news for opponents of Holtec’s wastewater disposal plan, including Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), who implored Holtec CEO Kris Singh during a May meeting of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee to secure community consent before releasing any wastewater from Pilgrim.
Holtec has defended its plans to discharge Pilgrim’s wastewater, arguing in a January letter that other disposition pathways such as evaporation and offsite shipping are not feasible, and that the practice is normal when decommissioning nuclear plants.
Despite that, the company has said it would not release any water into the Cape Cod Bay during 2022 while it evaluates its options, and that it would provide more information about a potential strategy later this year.
No interim storage in western U.S. without state consent, governor’s association says
The federal government should seek state consent before building any sort of nuclear waste facility in the western United States, a non-partisan organization representing state governors in the region said in a recent policy statement.
“No consolidated facility for nuclear waste, whether interim or permanent, or privately or federally owned and operated, shall be located within the geographic boundaries of a western state or U.S. territory” without written consent from the governor, the Western Governors’ Association said in a June 30 policy resolution.
The federal government should develop a “consent process” for siting nuclear waste storage sites that includes states, the resolutions said.
The governors’ association also supports “alternative waste acceptance options” such as providing funds to nuclear plant operators to keep spent fuel stored on-site. The hunt for alternatives, though, “must not detract from the imperative to develop a permanent solution to the management and disposition” of spent fuel, the policy resolution said.
The policy statement comes as two private companies are angling to build interim storage facilities for spent fuel in New Mexico and Texas. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission in September licensed the proposed Texas project, run by Orano-Waste Control Specialists joint venture Interim Storage Partners.
Both Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) belong to the Western Governors’ Association.
