Sen. Markey blasts committee decision to exempt Pilgrim plant from certain regulations

U.S. Sen. Edward Markey (D-MA) blasted the decision by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee to approve the exemption of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station from the regulations for emergency planning and preparedness.

Markey, who serves on the committee, wrote to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in September, urging it to reject Entergy and Holtec’s request for the plant to be exempted from these safety regulations.

The approval means the plant, located in Plymouth, Mass., is exempt from regulations that require the maintenance of offsite emergency response capabilities or procedures for public notification, even before all of the spent nuclear fuel is moved into dry cask storage. Pilgrim’s nuclear spent radioactive fuel pool was designed to hold 880 fuel assemblies. Today, Markey said, it holds more than 2,300 – more than two and a half times that number.

“Pilgrim should not get an exemption for key emergency preparedness and planning regulations while dangerous nuclear spent fuel is still cooling in open pools and threatening local residents,” Markey said this week. “The NRC’s decision is shocking but not surprising to all of us who have watched how the public’s concerns have been consistently ignored during the decommissioning process at the Pilgrim plant. I plan to reintroduce legislation that would correct this wrong, move nuclear fuel into safer dry cask storage, and ensure that key protections remain for Plymouth any community living in proximity to nuclear waste.”