Middleboro Review et al

NUCLEAR DISASTER: WITH CONTROVERSIAL REACTOR DOWN SINCE STORMS, TENSIONS RUN EXTREMELY HIGH IN PLYMOUTH March 28, 2018  By  MIRIAM WASSER Ed. note: For extensive background on the fight over nuclear energy in Mass, check out Miriam Wasser’s oral history covering 50 years of protests against the power plant in Plymouth at  pilgrimsoralhistory.org . As the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth remained offline for the 22nd consecutive day, supporters and opponents of the plant gathered about six miles away in the dimly lit ballroom of Hotel 1620 this week for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s annual assessment meeting. By law, the federal agency is required to host a meeting every year in communities with nuclear reactors to brief the public about the status of the plant and talk about any oversight or safety issues. Like in years past,  those for and against the plant came with brightly colored signs and prepared speeches, and eyed each other ca...

Pilgrim foes to demand plant’s closure By  Sean F. Driscoll Posted Jan 7, 2018 Opponents of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station will hold a “speakout” and deliver a letter to Gov. Charlie Baker at 2 p.m. today, calling for him to use his authority to demand the Nuclear Regulatory Commission revoke the plant’s operating license following an emergency shut down during the Jan. 4 snowstorm, according to a statement from the Cape Downwinders. The shutdown, known as a “scram,” occurred because of loss of offsite power, according to Entergy Corp., the plant’s owner. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal agency that oversees the nation’s 99 nuclear reactors, has reduced the number of resident inspectors at Pilgrim from three to two, despite the plant’s classification as one of the three worst performers in the country. Federal regulations require two resident inspectors from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission at every nuclear reactor; the NRC boosted the ...

‘Fundamentals’ continue to challenge Pilgrim performance By  Christine Legere   Posted Dec 26, 2017 PLYMOUTH — While federal inspectors say operators at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station are “generally effective” in identifying, evaluating and resolving problems, they note “longstanding issues” remain when it comes to the staff’s ability to determine whether equipment and systems will function as designed. And inspectors add that fundamentals of operational procedure continue “to challenge performance at the site.” The inspection report released late last week provides results of a review of Pilgrim’s ability to identify and resolve problems, conducted in late September by two regional inspectors from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and three NRC resident inspectors at Pilgrim. The group looked at past violations identified at Pilgrim since the last such inspection, which concluded in August 2015, to determine how operators had addressed the deficien...