You read that title right, an energy technology company is wanting to dump 1.1 million gallons of nuclear wastewater into Cape Cod Bay. Holtec International took ownership of the shuttered Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station back in 2019. The old nuclear power station sits right on the shores of Cape Cod Bay in Plymouth Massachusetts and currently contains 1.1 million gallons of wastewater that has been sitting inside a cooling compartment on the power plant property. Holtec International also received a $1 billion trust fund to cover the costs of decommissioning the old nuclear plant, but still feels that proper disposal of the wastewater is too costly.
Instead, Holtec plans to discharge the irradiated wastewater directly into Cape Cod Bay, even though they have been warned by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that an unauthorized release of this water would be in violation of the Clean Water Act. Initially, the company had indicated that they might dump the wastewater illegally and just eat the cost of any fines they incur from illegally dumping nuclear wastewater into a public resource. As of a January 23rd meeting with the Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel, a Holtec Rep did state they are pursuing a discharge permit to legally discharge the radioactive water into the bay, and would not discharge any water from the spent fuel pool until the permits were complete.
Other legal options for the disposal of the nuclear wastewater are to either truck it off to other facilities designed to handle disposal, evaporating the water and letting the plant’s air-handling system take care of it, or to store it long-term on the plant property. All of these legal options though are more costly and involved for Holtec, but considering the trust they received from the government I personally think they can eat some of the cost. If you want to reach out to your local representatives here are a couple of links for you to do that below.
Energy Tech Company plans to Dump Nuclear Wastewater into Cape Cod
Contact:
(State) Elizabeth Warren
(State) Ed Markey
