Pilgrim opponents out in force at NRC meeting

As reported by the Duxbury Reporter, a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) public meeting about Entergy's Pilgrim atomic reactor took place on Tues., April 2nd. It included a discussion of Entergy's recently announced plans to build a dry cask storage facility for Pilgrim's more than 40 years of piled up high-level radioactive waste. Every single irradiated nuclear fuel assembly ever generated at Pilgrim is currently still stored in its indoor, elevated storage pool, outside of any robust radiological containment structure, and at risk of fire and catastrophic radioactivity release.

The Reporter has also reported that, in advance of the meeting, environmental advocates EcoLaw demanded access to documents about the proposed dry cask storage installation, but the Town of Plymouth has denied access, citing safety and security concerns.

The Patriot Ledger reported that the reception for the NRC in Plymouth was angry and even scathing. Plymouth Selectmen questioned NRC, expressing dramatically increased concern after the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe at identically designed reactors in Japan -- General Electric Mark I Boiling Water Reactors. Mary Lampert of Pilgrim Watch, who fought against Pilgrim's 20-year license extension rubber-stamp by NRC for over six years (a record nationwide), called for safety upgrades at the reactor, including real-time, fully transparent monitoring of the proposed new dry cask storage facility. Cape Cod Downwinders called for Pilgrim's immediate, permanent shutdown.

As reported by the Cape Codder, decades old anti-nuclear sentiment in Chatham, near Pilgrim, has revved up yet again. A local drive is on to officially request Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick to urge NRC to reconsider its 20-year license extension rubber-stamp at Pilgrim. It should be remembered that Fukushima Daiichi Unit 1, the oldest reactor at the site and the first to melt down there, would not have even been operating on March 11, 2011 except that it had been granted a license extension not long before the fateful earthquake and tsunami.

The Old Colony Memorial posted a 5 minute video showing how the meeting got off to a "rough start," as members of Cape Downwinders protested the NRC's "casual...open house" format, demanding instead a formal town hall meeting type format. Cape Downwinders conducted an Occupy Wall Street style "Mike Check," refusing to become "radiation refugees" and calling for Pilgrim's permanent shutdown.