nuclear-news

Their chief piece of evidence? An internal email written Dec. 6 by the leader of a federal inspection team and sent accidentally — thanks to autofill in the “to” line — to Diane Turco, a citizen activist opposed to the plant.

The email outlined a host of problems at the aging plant, 40 miles southeast of Boston, including that the plant managers seemed “overwhelmed just trying to run the station.”

Ms. Turco immediately forwarded the email to The Cape Cod Times, which ran an article that set off alarm bells across the state and reignited residents’ long-simmering worries about the plant, which has been classified by federal regulators as one of the three worst-performing of the nation’s 99 nuclear plants. The email — and the debate that has followed — have forced a painful reckoning here in Plymouth, where many residents have been supportive of the plant, which has long provided this historic town with high-paying jobs, a boon to the tax base and contributions to charities.

Finally, after weeks of escalating concerns, officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission agreed to meet with the residents and several elected officials here on Tuesday night…….The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has classified Pilgrim, which went online in 1972, and two plants in Arkansas in a category called Column Four, one step away from being required to shut. All three are owned by Entergy Corporation, based in Louisiana……..Driving Ms. Turco and other critics is the fear of an accident that, according to a

2006 study done for the state attorney general, could have the potential to contaminate millions of residents from Boston to Providence, R.I., cause 24,000 latent cancers in the region and result in $488 billion in damages……

Dave Lochbaum of the Union of Concerned Scientists, who has worked in the industry but is now advising the activists, said he thought the regulators’ conclusions were “reasonable,” but he faulted them for failing to fully explain their thinking.

“The N.R.C. didn’t do a good job of explaining why a troubled plant can still be operating safely,” he said.https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/01/us/pilgrim-nuclear-power-plant.html?_r=0