Entergy Locks Out Local Workers
Entergy appears to be housing temporary workers at the Pilgrim station. This photo posted on Twitter this week by UWUA Local 369 and used with permission.
Despite the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) decision at the end of May 2012 to give Entergy Louisiana a license to operate the Pilgrim station for another 20 years, Pilgrim Coalition and its members are continuing their advocacy and public education. Last week, Entergy tried to get the better of all of us, and locked out its regular employees, replacing them with non-union contractors. Entergy and UWUA Local 369 did not reach a contract agreement and the company took the unimaginable step of escorting workers out of the station, refusing to let them work. Entergy's divisive move and its subsequent attempt to vilify union workers who are members of our community is unacceptable.
Pilgrim Coalition has much common ground with Local 369's Pilgrim workforce. We both want Pilgrim to be operated in the safest manner possible. We want Louisiana-based Entergy corporation to respect our communities, including our economy, natural resources, and the Pilgrim workforce.
We believe that Entergy's use of Pilgrim to house replacement workers creates a safety risk and should not be allowed. Members of the Coalition have petitioned the NRC to require Entergy to shut down Pilgrim due to the threat to public safety.
Click here to read a June 12, 2012 legal filing made by coalition member Pilgrim Watch regarding the labor dispute. The document supplements a May 16, 2012 filing.
Other developments:
- UWUA Local 369. Charges against Entergy were filed with the National Labor Relations Board for unlawful videotaping of picketing workers and coercive and threatening statements to employees. Click here for news coverage. Please note this story was updating on local news WATD-FM as we were publishing. Click for coverage.
- Congressmen Speak Out. Congressmen William Keating and Edward Markey have sent a letter to the NRC, questioning Entergy's emergency response capabilities during the current labor dispute. Click here for news coverage and the letter.
- Zoning Complaint. On Monday, Freeze Pilgrim filed a complaint with Plymouth's Inspectional Services Department, alleging Entergy is in violation of town's zoning and the State sanitary code and possibly fire and safety regulations. Click here for the letter and news coverage.
|
June 7 Rally in Boston Supports Pilgrim Watch Bid to Strengthen NRC Post-Fukushima Orders
Pilgrim Watch appeared before an Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) in Boston on Thursday, June 7. At the hearing, the ASLB considered arguments from coalition member Pilgrim Watch that new NRC orders issued in response to the Fukushima disaster are inadequate. Click here for more details on the hearing.
A statewide network of groups, including Toxics Action Center, Clean Water Action Project, MassPIRG and Cape Downwinders gathered in Post Office Square while the NRC's licensing board held the hearing.
Click here for coverage of the hearing and rally in the Associated Press.
|
Support Cape Downwinders July 11
 On May 20, coalition member Cape Downwinders held a rally and demonstration outside Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station to protest the relicensing. Some of the participants were arrested and charged with trespassing when they attempted to deliver a letter to Entergy. The Pilgrim 14 as they are calling themselves are scheduled to return to Plymouth District Court on July 11 for a pre-trial conference. The group asks supporters to join them in the courtroom that morning at 8:30 a.m.
|
Member in Action Alex Mansfield: "It's All Connected"
"I serve as the Ecology Program Director for the Jones River Watershed Association, which is a member of the Pilgrim Coalition. The JRWA Ecology Program is focused on understanding, protecting, and restoring the full ecological function of the Jones River. Our fundamental perspective on ecology is that "it's all connected". The species and habitats of the Jones River are connected to regional and global ecological processes. The Entergy Louisiana Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station is a significant "unnatural" feature that interacts with local environment in numbers of ways on a consistent basis. The use of large quantities of seawater, pollutant discharges into Cape Cod Bay, and continuous impacts to marine life alter the local and regional ecology every minute that the plant operates. It is automatic then that the Ecology Program at JRWA must focus on impacts of the Pilgrim station."
|
How Much Damage Is Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station Causing Our River Herring?
 By Alex Mansfield
Ecology Program Director
Edited for length
In May of 2012, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) released the new River Herring Benchmark Stock Assessment. This comprehensive report concluded that the east-coastwide population is depleted to near historic lows.
River herring are the collective term for two very similar fish species alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) and blueback herring (Alosa aestivalis). River herring abundance throughout Massachusetts has declined to historical low levels. As a result of these declines, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries has established several moratoriums on the sale and harvest of river herring since 2005.
Jones River: The depletion of river herring throughout the Commonwealth that led to the moratorium can be seen in the Jones River. From 2005 to 2011, the estimated size of the Jones River herring run was as low as 560 fish in 2008 and only as high as 4,512 fish in 2010.
Despite the historically low population levels and regulatory efforts to protect the species, Entergy Louisiana Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station (PNPS) continues to impinge large numbers of river herring on the screen of their cooling water intake. In fact Alewife is the third highest species impinged at the Pilgrim station. Based on annual extrapolated totals, the Pilgrim station impinges an average of 2,885 river herring per year and have been known to impinge as many as 41,128 river herring in a single year.
|
