Overview

THE FACTS
  Re-licensing
   Security
   Radioactive Waste
   Structural Issues
   Health
   Environment
   Emissions
   Monitoring
   Emergency Planning
   Oversight
   Economics
   Energy Alternatives

   Contact

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS  OF PILGRIM NPS

Radioactive Releases Occur Routinely and high releases have occurred historically. It doesn’t take an accident at Pilgrim to release radioactivity into our air, water, and soil. As a matter of routine operation, radiation is released from Pilgrim in the form of liquid, gaseous, and solid radioactive wastes. Radioactivity released include numerous radioactive isotopes, many are deposited on vegetation and marine life. They move up the food chain and eventually humans ingest them through food – For more, see Emissions

Climate: Global warming exists; Pilgrim is located on a coastline subject to increasingly severe storms and erosion. Scientists report that a big earthquake could hit Massachusetts at any time. Given these climate events, Rocky Hill Road, Plymouth is a very poor location for a nuclear reactor and storage of highly toxic radioactive waste. More

Licensee Charged With Tracking Releases; Collecting Samples to Determine Environmental Impact. More

Marine life, Wildlife and Pets: There is anecdotal evidence of cancers, tumors and disease in pets, wildlife and marine life near Pilgrim NPS; however no recent research. A report on research of marine impact conducted in the 1970’s is attached. Impact on birds is important. Duxbury/Plymouth Bays Complex is one of the state’s largest natural embayment – an important breeding area; the mudflats attract large numbers of migrating shorebirds. More

Once Through Cooling: Pilgrim, like all nuclear reactors, generates too much heat. To remove excess heat, they draw in 487,840,000 gallons of water a day from Cape Cod Bay. Along with the water, they suck in fish eggs and other microscopic organisms; larger fish get pulled in by the current too and become trapped on intake screens. The marine life that is drawn in gets pulverized by the reactor condenser system and emerges as sediment that clouds the water around the discharge area, often blocking light from the ocean floor. The sediment cloud results in killing plant and animal life by curtailing the light and oxygen needed to survive. The water that is drawn in cycles through and is then released at temperatures averaged over an hours time period of 30 degrees above Bay temperature (62F to 100F) – disrupting the ecosystem. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants Entergy to measure the water temperature discharged instantaneously recognizing that some discharges are 130 degrees or more - although the hourly average remains within limits. Entergy prefers the hourly average. Agreement has not been reached. Some organisms are attracted to the warmer environment. But when the reactor is abruptly shut down, water temperatures will drop causing cold-stunning, fatal to fish acclimated to warmer waters. 

Why are existing nuclear reactors, like Pilgrim, not required to employ the “best technology available to minimize adverse environmental impact?”

All new reactors, and other industries that take water from an adjacent water source for coolant, are required to use the best technology available. Indeed, it is possible to minimize adverse environmental impact by re-circulating the water by a closed cooling system - that is cooling towers or some other state-of-the art dry cooling. More

Authority: Pilgrim is issued a Water Discharge Permit every five years. It is issued by EPA and reviewed by DEP. A new permit was scheduled to be issued in the fall, 2004. It has not been re-issued. The Permit number is MA 0003557. More

Re-Licensing: Our marine ecosystem is a valuable and threatened resource. Therefore, it appears reasonable to require a dry cooling system as a condition of re-licensing. More

Report:  Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station: review of intake and discharge effects to finfish - Technical Memorandum For The Record, Gerald M. Szal [Department Environmental Protection, MA.], August 30, 2005. More

Links
Licensed to Kill: How the nuclear power industry destroys endangered marine wildlife and ocean habitat to save moneyhttp://www.nirs.org/licensedtokill/Licensedtokillintropage.htm 
Study done by Nuclear Information Resource Service and Safe Energy Council, complete report.

Riverkeeper http://www.riverkeeper.org/ 

More about NPS environmental impact