A million gallons of radioactive water is in a former nuclear power plant on Cape Cod Bay and it needs to go.
But where, is the tiresome question, and will the state intervene if the company dismantling the plant decides?
Holtec International is considering treating the water and discharging it into the bay, which has met with strong opposition from local residents, shellfish fishermen and politicians. Holtec is also considering vaporizing or trucking the contaminated water to a facility in another state.
The fight in Massachusetts echoes a recent, heated debate in Japan over a plan to release more than 1 million tons of treated radioactive waste water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean in spring 2023. A massive tsunami in 2011 crashed over the power plant. Three reactors melted.
The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Plymouth, Massachusetts, closed in 2019 after providing power to the region for nearly half a century. US Rep. William Keating, a Democrat whose district the Cape is in, along with other senior Massachusetts lawmakers wrote to Holtec in January to oppose the discharge of water into Cape Cod Bay. He called on the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to review its regulations.
Keating said in late March that Holtec’s handling of the radioactive water could set a precedent as the US decommissioning industry is still in its infancy. Most nuclear power plants in the US were built between 1970 and 1990.
“If they’re listening, being sensitive, and collaborating with those communities, that’s important,” he said. “That’s the message for future decommissioning sites.”
Holtec has acquired decommissioned nuclear power plants nationwide as part of its decommissioning business, including the former Oyster Creek power plant in New Jersey and the Indian Point power center in New York. It takes over the Palisades nuclear power plant on Lake Michigan, which will close this year.
Pilgrim was a boiling water reactor. Water constantly circulated through the reactor vessel and nuclear fuel, turning it into steam to turn the turbine. The water was cooled and circulated, picking up radioactive contamination.
Cape Cod is a tourist hotspot. Having radioactive water in the bay, even at low levels, is not good for marketing, said Democratic state representative Josh Cutler, who represents a district there. Cutler is working to pass legislation banning the dumping of radioactive material into coastal or inland waterways.
According to Holtec, Pilgrim has discharged water into the bay for 50 years during the operation of the facility and environmental studies conducted by the facility operators and now Holtec have shown little or no environmental impact. Radiological environmental reports are submitted to the NRC on an annual basis.
“We are working to provide scientific data, educate the public about the reality of radiation in everyday life, and have experts explain the true science versus the emotional fear of the unknown,” spokesman Patrick O’Brien wrote in an email in March.
WHAT ARE HOLTEC’S POSSIBILITIES?
Holtec could treat the water and discharge it in batches over several years, which is probably the most cost-effective option. Or it could evaporate the water on site, as has happened to about 680,000 gallons (2,600 kiloliters) over the past two years.
Evaporating the water would be more of a challenge now that the spent nuclear fuel is being stored and could not be used as a heat source. Holtec would have to use another – probably more expensive – method that would release gas.
Or Holtec could transport the water to an out-of-state facility where it could be mixed with clay and buried or placed in an evaporation pond or discharged into local waterways. That’s what Keating wants.
The Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station, another boiling water reactor, was shut down in Vernon, Vermont, in 2014. It directs wastewater to waste disposal specialists in Texas and other states. Entergy operated and sold both Vermont Yankee and Pilgrim. NorthStar, a separate and competing company in the decommissioning business, is dismantling Vermont Yankee.
Nuclear power plants occasionally need to dispose of low-level radioactive water when in operation, so a method was developed early on in the nuclear industry to discharge it batchwise into local waters.
In recent years at Pilgrim, the two largest releases have been 2011 with 29 releases totaling approximately 325,000 gallons (1,500 kiloliters) and 2013 with 21 releases totaling approximately 310,000 gallons.
The water from those releases was well below federal limits for the amount, in millirems, of radionuclides a person would be exposed to in a year from eating local seafood or swimming in nearby waters, according to the NRC.
NRC North East spokesman Neil Sheehan said the limits are very conservative and are believed to protect the public and the environment. He said it’s important to consider the role of dilution – once the discharges mix with large amounts of water, radioactivity is usually undetectable.
WHY ARE PEOPLE CONCERNED?
Duxbury, Kingston and Plymouth Bays are home to 50 oyster farms — the largest concentration in the state, valued at $5.1 million last year, according to the Massachusetts Seafood Collaborative. The cooperative said draining the water would destroy industry and, in turn, the local economy.
Diane Turco, a Harwich resident and long-time Pilgrim Guardian, questions whether the water is heavily contaminated, particularly from the pool that covered the stored spent fuel to cool it and protect workers from radiation.
“Isn’t Holtec’s crazy idea to use our bay as a landfill? No way,” she said.
Others were unaware that the waters of Pilgrim have flowed into the bay in years past, and they don’t want it to happen again.
“We can’t change that, but we can change what happens in the future,” said Cutler, the state legislature. “It’s the first time it’s been decommissioned, so it’s a convenient excuse to compare this to the past. ‘Well, we’ve done it in the past’, that sounds like my kid.”
Cities in the Cape are attempting to ban the spread of radioactive materials in their waters. Tribal leaders, fishermen, lobster fishermen and real estate agents have also spoken out publicly against it.
Sheehan, the NRC spokesman, said the water was no different or unlike the water released during the operation of the plant. Holtec would have to handle it the same way, filtering it, putting it in a tank, analyzing the radioisotopes and calculating the environmental impact if it were released in batches, he added.
Who has the last word?
Holtec would not require a separate permit from the NRC to discharge the water into the bay. However, Holtec would need a permit from the US Environmental Protection Agency if the water contained pollutants regulated by the Clean Water Act, such as dissolved metals.
If the water contained only radioactive materials regulated by the NRC, Holtec would not need to ask the EPA for a permit change, according to the EPA’s New England Water Division. Holtec has never provided the EPA with a contaminant characterization of the water related to the decommissioning, the department’s director said.
Mary Lampert, from Duxbury, is a member of a panel set up by the State to deal with issues relating to the Pilgrim’s decommissioning. She believes the state could use its existing laws and regulations to stop the dumping and plans to urge the Massachusetts Attorney General to file an injunction to do so.
The attorney general’s office said it is monitoring the issue and takes all Clean Water Act violations seriously.
Holtec said it will be testing the water for possible contaminants this week, but the lab results won’t be available for a while.
The company expects to decide what to do with the water later this year. Discharge, evaporation and limited transport will likely all be part of the solution, Holtec added.