State Senator Dylan Fernandes has introduced legislation that would prevent Holtec Decommissioning International from venting radioactive vapor at the former Pilgrim nuclear power plant in Manomet until state officials can evaluate the potential effect on Plymouth and surrounding communities.
“We want a study on this to find out what the impact is, confirm that it actually is safe,” said Fernandes, a Democrat whose district includes Plymouth.
The legislation is the latest twist in the battle between Holtec, which is decommissioning the former plant, and community opponents concerned about nuclear isotopes being evaporated into the atmosphere.
The state has already ruled that Holtec may not discharge 800,000 gallons of treated radioactive wastewater into Cape Cod Bay. How fast it is being evaporated from the plant – and whether it poses a health risk – has long been in dispute.
Diane Turco, executive director of the watchdog group Cape Downwinders, welcomed Fernandes’s move, calling it “another tool in the toolkit to try and stop this evaporation, which, she said, “needs to stop today.”
But the state has already decided that it has no power to regulate the release of evaporated radioactive water from the former plant, as that is the sole purview of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Fernandes’s legislation is called a “resolve.” Unlike a bill, which can become law, a resolve, if passed, directs specific government action, such as, in this case, requiring an investigation.
This resolve – called S. 540 – would prohibit any discharge of nuclear waste into the environment until it’s been studied by the state Departments of Public Health and Environmental Protection.
The legislation, however, is a long way from passage.
The resolve has been referred to the Joint Committee on Emergency Preparedness and Management. If that committee reports it out favorably, which Fernandes predicted could happen within weeks, he said it would then likely move to the Senate Ways and Means Committee for further consideration. State Representative Michelle Badger, who represents Plymouth, has introduced similar legislation in the House. If the Senate passes Fernandes’s resolve, it would move to the House for consideration.
Holtec maintains that the state has determined evaporating the wastewater is safe.
“The state has already said evaporation is allowable in a letter previously,” Holtec spokesperson Patrick O’Brien said in an email. “The legislation is unnecessary and simply more attempts to scare the public from the safe discharge of water that had occurred for over 50 years at the facility… [U]sing fear of radiation, something naturally occurring daily, on this planet and in everyday life, is akin to putting aside years of facts and science to study what is already known as no impact.”
Fred Thys can be reached at fred@plymouthindependent.org.