Plymouth
and TEN other towns voted against Pilgrim license:
Duxbury, Scituate, Kingston, Marshfield, Provincetown,
Truro, Brewster, Dennis, Harwich, and Mashpee.
Plymouth Town Manager sends
following message to NRC: The People of Plymouth, Massachusetts call upon the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission to immediately suspend all
further action on the application of the Entergy Corporation
for renewal of its license to operate the Pilgrim Nuclear
Power Station pending the full implementation of all safety
improvements recommended by the NRC as a result of lessons
learned from the failures of similarly designed reactors in
Fukushima, Japan.
HERE’S WHY:
Failed Design: Pilgrim, like the reactors at
Fukushima, is a GE Mark I Boiling Water Reactor – a failed
design. The NRC years ago recognized that “Mark-I failure
within the first few hours following core melt would appear
rather likely;" - a 90% likelihood of containment failure.
Failed Upgrades: The events at Fukushima last
year demonstrated that the “fix” implemented in the 90’s,
the Direct Torus Vent, designed to relieve pressure during
an accident, will also fail! Pilgrim’s vent, like
Fukushima’s, is neither passively operable (without
electricity or human intervention) nor filtered. Both are
necessary now to reduce the risk of explosion and
containment failure!
Spent Fuel Storage: Pilgrim stores all its "spent
fuel" in a pool located on the top floor of the reactor,
outside the primary containment, with only a thin roof
overhead. It was designed to hold 880 fuel assemblies, but
now holds over 3,270. Experts for the Massachusetts Attorney
General testified that the pool is vulnerable to a
catastrophic fire from loss of water that could cause $488
billion dollars of damage and 24,000 cancers. Spent fuel
stored in pools poses greater safety and security hazards
than if stored in dry casks. (Dry casks at Fukushima did not
fail!)
NRC CHAIRMAN SAYS “NO” TO PILGRIM: The
Chairman of the NRC, Gregory Jaczko, in his last dissenting
opinion before being pressured out of office by our
“industry-captured” congress, voted NOT to relicense Pilgrim
without addressing Fukushima fixes, noting that Entergy need
not suffer economically while these fixes are being
addressed, as Pilgrim may continue to operate on its
existing license during any delay.
This issue is now in the hands of the Federal Judiciary:
Attorney General Coakley Appeals to Federal Court: http://www.mass.gov/ago/news-and-updates/press-releases/2012/2012-04-05-pilgrim-nuclear-appeal.html
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