Holtec temporarily pausing plans to dump radioactive water in Cape Cod Bay. Here's why
Published May 12, 2022
Holtec International, the company decommissioning Plymouth's Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, has agreed not to release radioactive water from the plant into Cape Cod Bay until a third-party environmental expert weighs in.
Kris SinghPhD, president and CEO of Holtec, affirmed the company’s position in a Monday letter to Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., to withhold the discharge of one million gallons of water that was used to cool reactors and spent fuel rods when the plant was online.
This letter comes after a May 6 congressional subcommittee hearing held at Plymouth Town Hall by Markey, U.S. Rep. William Keating, D-Mass., and other state and local officials in response to Holtec’s plans to discharge the water.
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Singh agreed at the hearing to withhold the discharge of the water until getting approval from governmental officials to do so. In his letter three days later, he also agreed to halt the entire decommissioning process if necessary until an expert weighs in.
“… we will voluntarily refrain from releasing processed water to the bay even if lawfully permitted by the Authorities (EPA and NRC) until the processed water discharge is confirmed by your expert’s determination to contain radiological levels low enough to ensure that the local marine life remains protected,” Singh wrote.
Related:Cape town leaders oppose radioactive water release in Cape Cod Bay
“The people have spoken, and Holtec International has finally listened,” Markey said in a statement in response to Singh’s letter. “It was a powerful victory in Friday’s hearing when Holtec International’s President Dr. Kris Singh committed to engaging with my office, the state of Massachusetts, union leaders, and local stakeholders in any decision-making around nuclear decommissioning.”
Antinuclear activists still have questions about Pilgrim
Despite those promises from Holtec, antinuclear activists on the Cape still have concerns.
Diane Turco, director of the nuclear watchdog group Cape Downwinders, said that after reading Singh's letter, she is hopeful that the expert — who must pass muster with Markey — is a step in the right direction, but she also fears that Holtec will essentially take the contaminated water at the plant hostage in the meantime.
"What Singh is saying is either they dump it or they do nothing," Turco said. "He tried to appear conciliatory (at the hearing) but he was really manipulating the situation. They're going to stop decommissioning and keep that water there until the decommissioning fund runs out, and then leave. And it'll be our problem."
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Turco thinks there can be no opinion that deems the radioactive levels in the water safe enough for the bay.
The National Academy of Sciences determined there is no safe dose of radiation, she said, and the Environmental Protection Agency has said the goal for maximum levels of radiation in drinking water is zero.
"It's all about the money," Turco said, about the cost of removing the contaminated water from the power plant property.
Holtec's plans to take Pilgrim fuel rods to New Mexico
In his Monday letter to Markey, Singh noted his disappointment that Markey and Keating were reluctant at the May 6 hearing to speak about Holtec's plans for transferring Pilgrim's spent nuclear fuel to an underground storage facility in Lea and Eddy counties in southeast New Mexico.
Holtec, partnering with the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance, proposed plans for HI-STORE CISF, a "consolidated interim storage facility," the first subterranean used fuel storage facility for U.S. nuclear plants.
Holtec applied for a license for the facility in 2017, which is projected to hold up to 10,000 dry storage casks in a rectangular area of 110 acres. The entire HI-STORE facility is estimated to take up 288 of the 1,045 acres owned by the Eddy-Lea Energy Alliance.
HI-STORE was proposed to be a temporary storage option for spent nuclear fuel, but as plans for a permanent repository in Yucca Mountain, Nevada, were halted by the Obama administration after a statewide outcry, critics fear the once-temporary site in New Mexico will become permanent.
This facility will have "zero environmental impact" on the proposed host site, according to Singh's Monday letter, due largely to an absence of pollution emitted by the facility and the proposed building's remote location.
Turco, who said Cape Downwinders has worked closely in the past with antinuclear activists in New Mexico, thinks Singh is purposefully misleading Markey with these claims.
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The issues raised at the hearing concerned the plant's water discharging plans, whereas this facility in New Mexico would hold Pilgrim's spent fuel assemblies, not the water.
"It's another red herring from them," she said. "I mean, the whole state (New Mexico) is against it."
Despite Holtec's assurances there will be no environmental impacts on the surrounding land, the facility has received major pushback from New Mexico officials.
In March of 2021, New Mexico Attorney General Hector Balderas filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on behalf of the state, alleging the NRC overstepped its jurisdiction in licensing the storage facility.
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The original complaint cited in particular the costs of emergency preparedness and infrastructure improvements in the communities bordering the proposed railways shipping the spent fuel, as well as possible health risks associated with living near spent nuclear waste.
New Mexico state Sen. Jeff Steinborn, D-Las Cruces, took a stand against Holtec's plans for Lea and Eddy counties. In Jan. 2022, he filed Senate Bill 54 that would prohibit storing spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste in the state, citing public health and safety concerns.
"We're very concerned about transporting our waste to another community," Turco said. "We don't want it to go to New Mexico. We stand in solidarity with those folks."
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