NRC to Host Annual Pilgrim Performance Meeting Next Week

COURTESY PILGRIM NUCLEAR POWER STATION

PLYMOUTH – Nuclear Regulatory Commission representatives will be in Plymouth next week for a public meeting to discuss the 2017 safety performance of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station.

Plant inspection staff will be on hand at Hotel 1620 Plymouth Harbor Tuesday at 6 p.m. to talk about the various reviews conducted last year and planned for the future, along with answering questions from the public.

“We will be discussing, based on what we saw via inspection findings and performance indicators, how Pilgrim is viewed by the NRC,” said Neil Sheehan, an NRC Spokesman.

The NRC says the plant did operate safely last year but did have more than 30 green violations, which are of the lowest level of safety significance. The safety significance scale begins with green, on the low end, before moving to white, yellow and red.

“There are still a number of areas that are worthy of additional attention at the plant,” Sheehan said. “We have seen some improvement but there is no question there’s more work to be done.”

The second in a series of quarterly inspections at the facility begins this week. The inspections are a follow up to a Confirmatory Action Letter issued to the plant by the NRC last August which details corrective actions and effectiveness reviews to be completed by the plant’s owner, Entergy.

“There are still a number of areas that are worthy of additional attention at the plant,” Sheehan said. “We are doing these follow up inspections to see just how far they’ve come.”

The results of the quarterly inspection will be released to the public within 45 days after its completion.

“These inspections will continue throughout the remainder of the year and then we’ll see where the plant stands,” Sheehan said.

Pilgrim remains under column 4 of the NRC’s action matrix, which is the highest level of federal oversight and one step away from a mandated shutdown.

The station is scheduled to permanently close down in mid-2019.

By BRIAN MERCHANT, CapeCod.com NewsCenter