Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant back online

The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Plymouth is back online as of 4:24 a.m. Thursday, according to a spokesperson from the plant's owner Entergy.

Pilgrim was taken off the grid on April 14 for a planned maintenance and refueling. The shutdown, according to Carol Wightman, was the 19th of its kind.

During the shutdown, the reactor was refueled and maintenance was done to the main turbine generator, valves and transformer.  An inspection of the plant was also conducted, according to Wightman.


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Entergy: Pilgrim nuclear power plant back online

PLYMOUTH —  The Pilgrim nuclear power plant is back in production after being offline for seven days.

A spokesman for Entergy, Pilgrim’s owner, said early today that the 685-megawatt plant was reconnected to the region’s power grid shortly after 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Engineers and crews manually shut down the plant’s reactors Jan. 10 when Pilgrim’s two large water recirculation pumps automatically shut off.

That problem was caused by the failure of an electrical relay. Entergy spokesman Rob Williams said. Entergy extended Pilgrim’s offline time to perform routine maintenance that can’t be done when the reactors are working.

Pilgrim was shut down in December for scheduled maintenance.

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Nuclear Plants Withstand Hurricane Sandy

With the worst of Hurricane Sandy now passing the eastern seaboard, Entergy's Indian Point Energy Center and James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in New York, Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts and Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant in Vermont have all safely endured the storm.  Did the grid hold? Are there lessons for facility managers and building owners here as well?

Indian Point 2, FitzPatrick and Pilgrim remained at full power while Vermont Yankee reduced power to 88% at the request of ISO New England to help maintain grid stability. Indian Point 3 automatically shut down at 10:41 p.m. Monday as a result of an electrical grid disturbance. 

"Nuclear plants are built to exceed the most severe natural forces historically reported for their geographic area," says John Herron, president and CEO of Entergy Nuclear. "And we saw evidence of that again with Hurricane Sandy."

Entergy Nuclear plants began preparations for the storm last week, coordinating activities with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, independent system operators and various state and local government officials.

Critical staff remained dedicated at each site, ready to respond to potential weather impacts.

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Pilgrim, union sign 4-year pact; lockout ends

Union workers at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth approved a new four-year contract Sunday, ending a monthlong lockout and three months of bitter negotiations, officials said. Local 369 of the Utility Worker Union of America voted to ratify the contract, which is effective retroactive to May 16...

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Entergy Uses Back-Up Staff at Reactor After Union Talks Fail

Entergy Corp. (ETR), the second-largest U.S. nuclear-power generator is staffing its Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Massachusetts with management and workers from other plants after contract talks with a union failed.

A union assertion that local members reserve the right to walk off the job at any time without notice is “unacceptable” because it disregards public safety and may violate the plant’s operating license, New Orleans-based Entergy said today in a statement.

Entergy locked out workers who are “critical to safely managing” the plant, Dan Hurley, president of Utility Workers Union of America Local 369, said in a separate statement.

The announcements were made before regular trading began on U.S. markets. Entergy rose 0.6 percent to $64.93 yesterday in New York.

The Pilgrim nuclear power station is located 38 miles (61 kilometers) southeast of Boston in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The 685-megawatt plant can power about 548,000 average homes. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced May 29 it had renewed the 40-year-old plant’s operating license for another 20 years.

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Entergy Gets Nuclear License Extended

Wayne Barber | May 28, 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has authorized Entergy’s (NYSE: ETR) 660-MW Pilgrim nuclear plant in Plymouth, Mass., to continue operating for an additional 20 years, until mid-2032.

It’s all part of the bigger debate as to whether nuclear energy will grow its market share in this current climate or whether it will maintain it, or even shrink. The debate also highlights the current dissension among the NRC’s commissioners, and who might replace the exiting NRC chair.

Outgoing NRC Chairman Greg Jaczko was the lone vote against the license extension among the five-member commission. The controversial Jaczko, who announced his resignation May 21, was also the lone member of the panel to vote against issuance of new nuclear plant licenses in Georgia and South Carolina earlier this year – which were NRC’s first such approvals in more than 30 years.

The current 40-year operating license at Pilgrim was set to expire June 8. With the long-sought-after license extension now in hand, Entergy can perhaps focus more attention on negotiating a new labor agreement for the plant with Utility Workers Union of America Local 369.

The labor contract expired earlier this month, and Entergy hopes to reach a new four-year agreement. A federal mediator has been called in to help the parties overcome their differences.

Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., blasted the NRC’s decision to approve the license renewal while many opposition groups were still trying to raise concerns about the plant before NRC.

“The NRC shouldn’t be short circuiting the process and short-changing residents by moving forward with license approval before all the efforts to improve nuclear and environmental safety at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station have been resolved,” Markey said in a May 25 news release.

Entergy Nuclear filed Pilgrim’s license renewal application on Jan. 25, 2006, making this the longest license review on record, which would appear to contradict the claims that the review process had been ‘short circuited.’

“During the NRC’s more than six years of review, people were afforded multiple chances to attend public meetings so regulators could get their input and hear their concerns,” said Entergy Nuclear CEO and Chief Nuclear Officer John Herron. “The public also had almost unlimited access to the NRC’s record of its extensive inspections of the plant."

Entergy said the plant produces enough power to supply 10% of the electric demand in Massachusetts.

Wayne Barber is chief of power generation for Generation Hub, a unit of Energy Central.

Pilgrim nuclear plant shut down after condenser problem

By Colin A. Young, Globe Correspondent

Power production at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth was halted this afternoon when a condenser at the station lost vacuum pressure during a cleaning, forcing operators to shut down the entire plant, officials said.
Operators shut down the plant, which was operating at about 30 percent power at the time, according to Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Plant operators initiated a manual “scram,” which “involves the control room operators inserting all of the control rods into the reactor core to halt the fissioning process,” according to Sheehan.
The condenser uses water from the bay to cool and convert into water the steam that was produced in the reactor and then used to spin the turbine to generate electricity, Sheehan said. The condenser operates in a vacuum to maximize efficiency, he said.
NRC inspectors at the plant “did not identify any safety concerns or performance issues,” Sheehan said. “They will follow the company’s efforts to troubleshoot the cause of the loss of condenser vacuum and any corrective actions.”
Rob Williams, a spokesman for Entergy Corp., the Louisiana-based company that has run the plant since 1999, said that the incident, which happened at 1:11 p.m., took the station off the power grid. The plant will remain shut down until investigators determine what caused the problem, Williams said.
“The technicians are now investigating the cause of that reduced condenser performance,” he said. “As we do with every shutdown, there will be a comprehensive investigation to look into what caused the condenser performance issue.”
Multiple failures by the control room staff at the station last spring sparked the power plant’s first emergency shutdown in years, according to a report released in September by the NRC, which issued a finding that the problems were likely serious enough to warrant a rigorous year-long review of the plant’s safety procedures.


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Union: Workers locked out of Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station

By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff

Amidst stalled contract negotiations over health care, safety, and staffing issues, dozens of workers have been locked out of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth as the plant’s owner, Entergy Corp., is barring all non-essential employees from the facility, a union representing many of the workers said Wednesday.
Utility Workers Union of America Local 369 said it currently represents 380 members at Pilgrim, or nearly 90 percent of the facility’s work force.
In a statement, Entergy said, “There is no employee lockout --- some of the affected bargaining unit members are receiving a paid day off while we work through these issues.”
According to the union, “there are no non-essential workers at a nuclear power plant.
The contract between Entergy and the union expired Tuesday, Entergy said. Contract negotiations continued throughout the night and into the morning, but an agreement has yet to be reached, said Entergy, which added that the union declined its request for a contract extension. According to Entergy, the union has stated that it reserves the right to strike at any time, and Entergy claims that this position is unacceptable.
“We are continuing to attempt to work through some of the issues today,” Entergy said.
Contract negotiations are taking place as the company enters the final stages of a six-year review process to renew the license at Pilgrim Nuclear; the current license is set to expire on June 8, the union noted.
In a statement, union president Dan Hurley said: “Entergy makes a million dollars a day in profits from Pilgrim Nuclear on the backs of hardworking men and women who run this plant safely day in and day out. It’s disgraceful and disturbing that Entergy would lock out the experienced workers that make the plant safe and profitable for company executives.”

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Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station Seeking Relicensing, Mass. Officials Object

BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts' only nuclear power plant wants permission to operate another 20 years, but as a decision nears, some high ranking officials say a record-long federal review of the request spanning more than six years hasn't been long enough.
The operating license for Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth expires June 8, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to decide whether to renew the plant's license through 2032 any day now, although top Massachusetts officials have asked the commission to extend its deliberations.
Last month, Attorney General Martha Coakley appealed the NRC's decision to hold hearings on the relicensing, citing what she said were unaddressed safety concerns raised by the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant accident in Japan last year.
On Friday, U.S. Reps. Edward Markey and William Keating warned NRC chairman Greg Jaczko that the commission would send "an alarming message" to people living near nuclear plants if they acted before pending issues are resolved.
And on Monday, Gov. Deval Patrick asked the NRC to take more time, citing "a number of serious concerns that have been raised regarding public safety, public health and the environment."
The NRC staff has already recommended the commission approve Pilgrim's license, and a public commission vote is expected soon.
"We do believe that the plant is being operated safely, we believe that it has the appropriate level of security, and the staff believes that the review that has been conducted shows that the plant can operate safely for an additional 20 years," said NRC spokeswoman Diane Screnci.

Anti-Pilgrim activist Mary Lampert believes Pilgrim's license will inevitably be renewed. But she said her group, Pilgrim Watch, is fighting for increased public awareness about Pilgrim's risks.
"I would hope that it would be closed," said Lampert of Duxbury. "In the interim, you have to work for safer operations to reduce risks."
Pilgrim filed its renewal application on time, so it can continue to operate even if the NRC doesn't relicense it by June 8.
The plant was built in 1972 and purchased in 1999 by its current owner, Entergy. The 680-megawatt plant provides electricity to about 680,000 homes, said Carol Wightman, an Entergy spokeswoman.
Entergy applied for Pilgrim's license renewal in January 2006, but various hearings have made the pending review the longest in NRC history by 13 months and counting, Screnci said.
Opponents have attacked the relicensing from several angles. Markey says the unresolved issues include the NRC's failure to determine how the plant's relicensing would affect Atlantic sturgeon and river herring, which swim nearby and are protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Markey and Coakley say the NRC also isn't fully considering lessons from the Fukushima nuclear accident. For instance, they point to Pilgrim's storage of spent fuel rods in pools of water, rather than encased in dry casks. The same storage method was used at Fukushima, and the rods caught fire.
"With Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station utilizing the same design as the reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant, it is plain common sense to implement appropriate safety measures before approvals are granted," Markey said.
Lampert says security at the plant is subpar, making it vulnerable to terror attack. She adds that the 40-year-old plant is old and deteriorating.
On Monday, voters in Brewster became the latest to pass anti-Pilgrim resolutions, asking state lawmakers to block the plant's relicensing. But such opinions aren't universal, said Entergy's Wightman, adding that Pilgrim enjoys significant support in a community where it employs about 650 people and paid $10.5 million in taxes during the last fiscal year.
She said Entergy has spent millions in upgrades and runs an aggressive preventative maintenance program.
The NRC is reviewing lessons from the Fukujima accident, and Pilgrim is following its lead to make needed changes, Wightman said.
She added the plant's security is robust and monitored constantly by the NRC's ongoing inspection program.
"We maintain Pilgrim is safe," she said. "We've been running it safely for 40 years."

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NRC staff recommends renewing license for the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth

By David Abel, Globe Staff

After six years of review and a succession of lawsuits, the staff at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has recommended that commissioners vote to renew the license of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, which expires next month.
The staff, in an eight-page document, said the 40-year-old plant has “taken, or will take, appropriate actions to manage the effects of aging during the period of extended operation.”
Entergy Corp., the Louisiana-based company that has run the plant since 1999, has sparked a raft of protests and lawsuits since it sought to renew its license to operate the plant for an additional 20 years. Officials on Friday said they are eager for a vote.
“Pilgrim Station has gone through a six-year, record long, detailed NRC safety and technical review as part of Pilgrim’s license renewal application, and we look forward to the NRC’s decision,” said Carol Wightman, a spokeswoman for Pilgrim.
But opponents of the plant have urged commissioners to delay their vote until they have a chance to present their concerns about the plant at a hearing.
An NRC official said the recommendation does not mean commissioners will renew the license.
Pilgrim opponents argue that the Entergy can’t do enough to ensure safety, given what they view as the intrinsic danger of nuclear plants, especially one 35 miles from Boston and with nearly 5 million people within a 50-mile radius. Their opposition gained new urgency a year ago, when a massive earthquake and tsunami triggered one of the world’s worst nuclear disasters at a similarly designed nuclear plant in Japan.
They argue commissioners shouldn’t renew Pilgrim’s license because of aging pipes beneath the plant that may leak radioactive liquids, problems with electrical cables that transmit power to and from the plant, and the lack of a sufficient cleanup plan in the event of a radiation leak. They also say Pilgrim has failed to do a sufficient analysis of the plant’s impact on endangered species in the area.
“The NRC staff’s decision is very upsetting because it makes a total mockery out of the process,” said Mary Lampert, director of Pilgrim Watch, who has long called for the plant to be shuttered. “They’re essentially requesting that the game be called before the game is over, while the players are still on the field.”
In the recommendation to commissioners, RW Borchardt, executive director for operations at the NRC, dismissed concerns that the plant is unsafe or a threat to the environment.
“The staff finds that there is reasonable assurance that the activities authorized by the renewed license will continue to be conducted safely in accordance with the current licensing,” he wrote.
The plant’s license is set to expire on June 8. But the plant will be able to continue operating, until commissioners make a final decision, NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said.
He said it was not clear when that will happen but that it could come in the next few weeks.
“A decision on how to proceed will ultimately rest with the commission,” Sheehan said in a statement.

Pilgrim nuclear plant seeks a new license

BREWSTER —(New England)

Plymouth’s Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant has been operating since Dec. 9, 1972 – that’s forever for a lot of people.

But its license to operate is before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and it’s been awaiting approval since January 2006 and it expires June 8. Entergy, which bought the plant in 1999, is seeking a 20-year renewal.

Last year’s accident/disaster at the Fukushima plant in Japan has stoked opposition to the renewal. Brewster Ladies’ Library will host a forum March 27, at 7 p.m. on “The Dangers of Pilgrim Nuclear Station” and related issues (featuring state Rep. Sarah Peake) and the The Pilgrim Coalition has organized a protest at the plant for Sunday, March 11, at 1 p.m.

Two weeks ago CIRenew hosted a forum on the plant at Cape Cod Community College, where state Sen. Dan Wolf spoke against renewing the license.

Nuclear power in New England

The electric grid in Massachusetts and the region is managed by ISO New England. ISO spokesman Carolyn O’Connor explained that they ensure available power and demand are in balance and that without New England’s five nuclear plants, “significant transmission investment and/or new resources would be needed.” All told there’s 32,000 megawatts of electricity available and the one-day record for demand is 28,130 mw set Aug. 2, 2006.

The nuclear plants in Vermont (Yankee, 604 mw), Seabrook, N.H. (1,245 mw), Millstone 2 and 3 in Connecticut (2,102) and Pilgrim in Plymouth (677 mw) provide a combined capacity of 4,628 mw.

“Nuclear does supply significant capacity,” O’Connor said. “It’s relatively low-priced energy, operating all the time except for refueling. It has high availability rates.”

In 2010 the plants produced 30-percent of the region’s energy. Ten year’s earlier it was 31-percent. In contrast, oil plants, which provided 22-percent of New England’s power in 2000 produced less than half a percent two years ago. Low-priced natural gas’s contribution jumped from 15-percent to 46 in the same time frame.

“The New England region is moving away from oil in a big way,” O’Connor explained. “Nuclear is pretty constant with around 5,000 megawatts of power. We see the reliance on natural gas as a risk for New England. We want to work with stakeholders and the government to sort that out.”

The worries

“Can Fukushima happen here?” asked Mary Lampert of Pilgrim Watch. “My opinion is it can.”

Pilgrim has the same general design as Fukushima (GE Mark I boiling water reactor). In an accident Pilgrim would depend on generators located close to the water, fuel tanks and cables buried beneath the ground in moist conditions and only seven days of fuel.

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Mass. Pilgrim reactor could get new license Thursday

By Scott DiSavino      March 8 (Reuters) - U.S. nuclear regulators
could decide on Thursday to renew the operating license for Entergy
Corp's 685-megawatt (MW) Pilgrim nuclear power plant in
Massachusetts for another 20 years until 2032.     

To date, the six-year old renewal process for the 40-year old Pilgrim
reactor was the longest yet for a new license in U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC) history.     

However, Entergy's ongoing quest to renew the operating licenses for
the two reactors at its 2,063-MW Indian Point plant in New York,
which expire in 2013 and 2015, is expected to last much longer.

Entergy, the nation's second biggest nuclear power operator, applied
to renew the original 40-year operating license for Pilgrim in
Jan. 2006. It filed to renew the Indian Point reactors in April 2007.     

To date, the NRC has approved of new licenses for 71 of the nation's
104 operating reactors prior to Pilgrim and rejected none. Those
reactors produce about 20 percent of the electricity used in the
United States.     

Although the NRC has completed most license renewal applications
in about two years, it can take years to decide on the most heavily
opposed proceedings like Pilgrim and Indian Point.     

It took Exelon Corp, the nation's biggest nuclear power operator,
about four years to renew the license of the Oyster Creek reactor
in New Jersey and Entergy about five years to renew the Vermont
Yankee reactor, which the state of Vermont is still trying to shut.      

At Pilgrim, NRC commissioners are expected to rule on Thursday on
a filing related to the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident in
Japan last March filed by the Massachusetts Attorney General's
office, and some other associated motions.     

The NRC's judicial arm, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB),
recently denied the Massachusetts Attorney General's Fukushima
contention.     

If the commission were to uphold the ASLB ruling and reject the
contention, the commissioners could authorize the NRC staff to issue
the new license for Pilgrim.      The NRC has said on many occasions
it will not hold up a license renewal or even an application to build
a new reactor to wait for the final rules related to the lessons
earned from the Fukushima accident. Those rules will apply to all
reactors, new or existing, regardless of whether the reactor is
seeking a new license.

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Nuclear Regulatory Commission sea change?

Chairman Jaczko wants red tape removed for Fukushima contentions

PLYMOUTH —

While the Nuclear Regulatory Commission seems to be moving quickly now, dispensing with the objections and legal contentions standing in the way of relicensing the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, as those impediments are brushed aside something quite remarkable may be taking place.

Almost hidden in several recent decisions by the NRC – decisions which went against critics of relicensing – is the core of a sea change, a belief on the part of certain key individuals in this government bureaucracy that, at least in the case of recent concerns about the relevance of the Fukushima disaster to Pilgrim and other American nuclear power plants, business as usual is no longer acceptable.

That is not to say that there is even a hint that the NRC will not, perhaps within days, approve a 20-year license extension for Pilgrim. The signs all still point to that happening and happening imminently.

Just this week, the presidentially appointed commission that oversees the NRC rejected two more post-Fukushima contentions filed by the Pilgrim Watch organization regarding the license renewal application for Pilgrim.

That leaves one contention raised by the state Attorney General and two more filed by Pilgrim Watch, all three filed post-Fukushima.

Both of the contentions dismissed this week challenged the Severe Accident Mitigation Alternatives (SAMA) analysis performed by Entergy as part of its license renewal application.

One contention argued that, in light of new information about the possible re-criticality of nuclear fuel at Fukushima following the disaster, the old analysis was now deficient.

The other asked the NRC to review whether that same SAMA analysis effectively accounted for off-site releases of radioactivity, in light of apparent problems encountered with the vents that were supposed to release hydrogen and prevent explosions at Fukushima.

A majority of the commission upheld the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) panel that first reviewed, and rejected, these contentions.

But while brushing aside these two Fukushima-related contentions, the commissioners publicly declared their sensitivity to the underlying issues.

The fine print

The commission’s written decision directly referenced the NRC’s ongoing review of – and the concerns of citizens groups with – the Fukushima disaster.

“Although we have made, and continue to make, significant progress in identifying and implementing lessons learned and prioritizing regulatory actions,” the announcement of this latest ruling noted, “the NRC continues to analyze the Fukushima events, to engage stakeholders, and to develop further recommendations.”

The commissioners further assured concerned citizens that if they find changes are needed to maintain the safety of plants of a similar design to the GE boiling-water reactors in Japan, such as Pilgrim, they will order those changes made regardless of the status of the affected plants.

In short, even if the plant were relicensed tomorrow, changes in response to the Fukushima disaster could and would still be enacted.

“We have in place well-established regulatory processes by which to impose any new requirements or other enhancements that may be needed following completion of regulatory actions associated with the Fukushima events,” the decision announcement stated.

“All affected nuclear plants ultimately will be required to comply with NRC direction resulting from lessons learned from the Fukushima accident, regardless of the timing of issuance of the affected licenses.”

Additionally, the vote to reject the contentions was not unanimous.

Gregory Jaczko, the commission’s chairman, offered a strong dissenting opinion.

“Fundamentally, I believe that the reopening standard is not appropriate for Fukushima-related contentions,” Jaczko argued. “Therefore, I believe the admissibility of these contentions should have been considered solely under the criteria applicable to non-timely filings.

“As the majority observes,” the chairman added, “the higher threshold for contention admissibility imposed for reopening a record places a heavy burden on a litigant seeking the admission of new contentions.

“In my view, this more stringent contention admissibility standard is not appropriate for contentions arising from the unprecedented and catastrophic accident at Fukushima.”

Put simply, Jaczko seems to think that, overall, the events at Fukushima are unprecedented, and so deserve special treatment. He suggested these kinds of contentions should receive expedited consideration: Rejecting them based on admissibility standards is a mistake.

“Given the significance of that accident and the potential implications for the safety of our nuclear reactors,” Jaczko argued, “we should allow members of the public to obtain hearings on new contentions on emerging information if they satisfy our ordinary contention standards.

“Applying more stringent admissibility standards to Fukushima contentions because a board has taken the administrative action of closing the record on an unrelated hearing will lead to inconsistent outcomes and, more importantly, unfairly limit public participation in these important safety matters.”

Though this may be a remarkable change in the tone of the discussion, it is not unprecedented.

Over the past several years, NRC Administrative Judge Ann Marshall Young has dissented with several majority decisions on contentions offered by Pilgrim Watch and others, even prior to March 11, when word of the earthquake and tsunami first reached America.

Young dissented again, in part, earlier this year, when the two contentions that were just dismissed first came before the Atomic Licensing and Safety Board. She concurred with regard to the Re-criticality Contention but would have admitted the Direct Torus Vent Contention.

In addition to her rulings on the admissibility of these contentions, Young also opined that Pilgrim Watch’s contentions raised significant issues and, therefore, using an argument similar to Jaczko’s, warranted sua sponte (without being prompted) review.

Young further recommended that the commission “consider having the staff look more closely – take a ‘hard look’ – into the issues raised in these contentions, as well as any other issues arising out of the Fukushima Daiichi accident that relate particularly to Mark I BWR reactors (the GE design used by Pilgrim and dozens of other American plans), prior to any decision on the license renewal application.

“I believe this would serve the interests of both public safety and public trust in the process the NRC utilizes for attending to such safety and environmental issues, which I find is particularly warranted given the seriousness of the Fukushima accident and the effect it has had on public perceptions of the safety of nuclear power. Whatever the outcome of such an inquiry, in my view, taking such a ‘hard look’ would provide an important public service.”

License to license

A few dissenting opinions, however, do not offset the majority.

The two contentions were dismissed and the expectation, again, is that the remaining three contentions will suffer the same fate.

Pilgrim Watch founder Mary Lampert characterized the NRC’s decision on these last two contentions in terms of its ethics.

“Germany and some other countries responded to the ongoing tragedy in Fukushima by stopping operations until they were 100 percent certain they understood what the problems were and were certain they could go forward without risking the public’s safety,” Lampert said.

“In contrast, this decision (like the recent decision to grant a license to build two new reactors) shows that NRC commissioners have decided to go forward with licensing until they are certain that it is not alright to do so.”

Lampert said this reflects a clear bias on the part of the NRC “in favor of the nuclear industry – not to take the conservative route and slow down until 100 percent convinced it is safe to do otherwise.”

At least in the case of Jaczko and Young, though, the bias appears to be in a different direction.

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