Federal officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are expected to address the demolition and cleanup of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station at a public meeting in November.
NRC officials are scheduled to speak to the Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel at the panel’s regular meeting in Plymouth.
Likely topics of discussion include water contamination, the role of host communities, and the storage of spent nuclear fuel, which will continue at Pilgrim indefinitely.
Kevin Canty, chair of the panel and a member of the Plymouth Select Board, said the panel asked the NRC to address how it incorporates concerns about environmental justice into its decisions about decommissioning and spent fuel storage.
Opponents of shipping Pilgrim’s radioactive water to another state for storage have cited environmental justice as a reason not to do so. They say it puts the problem in someone else’s backyard.
Others contend that specialized facilities built to accept the water are safer than discharging the water into Cape Cod Bay or allowing it to evaporate into the outdoor air.
But the NRC does not plan to include environmental justice in its presentation, Canty said.
“We were told by the NRC that they could not cover the topic of environmental justice,” he said. ”They did not say that, but I would speculate that that may be related to the current federal administration and its policies in regards to concepts such as environmental justice.”
Water continues to evaporate from Pilgrim. The plant held 1.1 million gallons in early 2023. That number has fallen to about 835,000 gallons.
Although the water is treated, not all contamination can be removed, including some radioactive material.
Regarding soil and groundwater cleanup at Pilgrim, the state Department of Environmental Protection is overseeing evaluation of the land surrounding the plant.
A report on soil and groundwater filed by Pilgrim owner Holtec International earlier this year appears to meet state requirements, but it may need to be updated as Holtec demolishes more buildings at the closed nuclear plant, said Gerard Martin, southeast regional director in the agency’s Lakeville office.
The report deals with PFAS and other contaminants.
“It's a little tricky, because it's gonna be a little bit of a moving target, because as they continue to take buildings down, additional sources may be identified which will have to be folded into the existing Phase 2 report, through addendums and things like that,” he said.
Demolition of the reactor building at Pilgrim is scheduled to begin in 2031, but the timing hinges on resolution of the ongoing dispute over how to dispose of radioactive water inside the building.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel advises the governor on the decommissioning of Pilgrim, which was shut down in 2019.
