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Three buildings at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station to be demolished

Peter Dalton of the Stellwagen Bank Charter Boat Association and Duxbury Shellfish Advisory Committee speaks at Monday's meeting of the Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel.
PACTV

Demolition of three more buildings at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station will start in July, a company representative said Monday.

They are the trash compactor, the original administration building, and a fabrication shop.

With those, 70 to 75 percent of the square footage of the buildings at Pilgrim will be gone, according to David Noyes, who spoke on behalf of Pilgrim owner Holtec at a meeting of the Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel.

The nuclear reactor and turbine buildings will remain, for now.

In June, a contractor will remove six diesel fuel tanks. Two tanks will be left in place.

“They're used when it's necessary to run the station boilers for heating and prevent freezing,” Noyes said.

Meanwhile, public debate continues over the fate of a million gallons of radioactive water in the plant.

Holtec has said it will probably need to use a combination of three disposal methods for the water: releasing water into Cape Cod Bay, evaporation, and trucking for off-site disposal.

At Monday’s meeting, Peter Dalton of Duxbury urged the company not to discharge radioactive water into Cape Cod Bay.

“I just can't believe that you'd even consider doing this,” he said. “This — in today's world — to even think about this!”

Dalton is a member of the Stellwagen Bank Charter Boat Association and Duxbury Shellfish Advisory Committee.

Holtec says it will analyze the pros and cons of the disposal methods and provide details by the fall.

The company has also pledged, at public request, to include information about leaving the water in on-site storage as a way to avoid releasing it into the bay.

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Jennette Barnes is a reporter and producer. Named a Master Reporter by the New England Society of News Editors, she brings more than 20 years of news experience to CAI.
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