Wolf Wants Spent Fuel Rods Removed From Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station

COURTESY PILGRIM NUCLEAR POWER STATION

PLYMOUTH – Stacking 3,000 radioactive spent fuel rods in a wet pool at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth could pose danger, according to State Senator Dan Wolf.

Wolf was invited to address the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s public hearing on Tuesday in Maryland.

Wolf told the NRC that he would like to see the rods moved into dry cask storage soon, following the shutdown of Pilgrim by June 2019.

“I think that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission way underestimates the difference between wet storage and dry storage and if I emphasize anything here today, I think it is regulations that expedite the transition of fuel storage from wet to dry,” said Wolf.

NRC staff held the hearing and invited legislators and government officials who have nuclear plants that have closed or will close, to comment on proposed changes to federal plant decommissioning rules.

The rules are under review in order to eliminate some of the exemptions and amendments that owners of decommissioning reactors want, which NRC staff believe requires processing a lot of paperwork.

Wolf told NRC staff that a bill is currently in the state legislature that would assess $25 million per year to Pilgrim’s owner Entergy Corp.

If Entergy were to run out of money for decommissioning though, the state would have those funds held in another account.

Costs could reach $1.4 billion, but Entergy currently has $900 million in a decommissioning fund that is federally controlled.

Wolf said that he wants to make sure that Entergy pays for any cleanup costs.

“We are very concerned that corporate structure here is creating a veil or isolating or insulating the corporate interest at the top from site specific liability and we think that really needs to be looked at to the extent that it can,” said Wolf.

By JUSTIN SAUNDERS, CapeCod.com Newscenter