Pilgrim Coalition
In This Issue
Feb. 6 Plug-In Workshop
Pilgrim Coalition Members Seek Answers
NUKE MATTERS
Recent News Coverage
MEMA: No Escape for Cape Cod Citiizens
Social Media
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Coalition Members
  • Pilgrim Coalition
  • Cape Cod Bay Watch
  • Cape Downwinders
  • Clean Water Action
  • Freeze Pilgrim
  • Jones River Watershed Association
  • Mass Peace Action
  • MassPIRG
  • Mass Sierra Club
  • Pilgrim MUST
  • Pilgrim Watch
  • Safe and Green Campaign (MA)
  • Social Justice Committee - Duxbury
  • Social Action Committee - Plymouth
  • South Shore Citizens for Peaceful Solutions
  • Toxics Action Center
  • Veterans for Peace, Cape Cod (Corporal Jeffrey M. Lucy Chapter)
  • Cape Codders for Peace and Justice
  • PIlgrim Anti-Nuclear Action
  • News Update
    January 2013
    Join Us Feb. 6 for a "Plug-In" Workshop

    Members of the Pilgrim Coalition, a network of citizens and organizations dedicated to raising awareness of, and reducing, significant public health, safety and environmental risks from Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, met recently to plan for their upcoming "Plug-In" meeting on Feb 6th, 7:30pm at the Plymouth Public Library. They hope to give new folks an opportunity to find their place in a growing movement to reduce risk to our communities. Click here to find out more.

     

    Pilgrim Coalition Workshop   

    Pilgrim Coalition Seeks Answers About Entergy's Construction of Long-Term Nuclear Waste Storage Facility

    Ecolaw lawyer Anne Bingham
    Click above to watch this video of EcoLaw attorney Anne Bingham speaking about Pilgrim. Video from the Old Colony Memorial/Wicked Local website. Posted here with credit.

     

    Pilgrim Coalition members are asking local, state and federal regulators, and Entergy itself, to explain what's going on with the construction of a nuclear waste storage facility at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station. Entergy has stated publicly over the past eight months that it is building a waste storage facility at a cost of about $120 million. It needs this facility because it is running out of room in its current "wet storage" pools. For more information about this topic, see this article.

     
    Local residents have asked the Town of Plymouth building inspector, the Board of Selectmen, and the Nuclear Matters Committee to look into the matter. When this was raised at the Board of Selectmen meeting on Dec. 4, the next day Entergy suddenly filed a permit application. But this application is for only part of the project - a 210- by 14-foot retaining wall.   Concerned residents say the project should not be permitted in a piecemeal way, and want a comprehensive special permit application to be filed.  On behalf of residents, EcoLaw, a public interest group, has sent letter to the Town. 

    Entergy may also need separate approval from the Plymouth Conservation Commission.

    Entergy needs a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for the nuclear waste storage facility, but has not applied for one.

    Plymouth will be burdened with Entergy's nuclear waste storage facility for decades and likely for thousands of years. Pilgrim Coalition will continue to follow this issue. Get in touch to find out what you can do to make sure Entergy's nuclear waste storage facility is properly permitted and is safe enough to protect us from radiation for what could be forever! 
     
    Click here to watch a video on the Old Colony Newspaper/Wicked Local websiteClick here to read a related article.  
    NUKE MATTERS: Radioactive Waste Storage at Pilgrim: Why it is a Concern

    By Meg Sheehan and Mary Lampert | Cape Cod Bay Watch 

    Published by Old Colony Memorial Newspaper/Wicked Local Plymouth 

    Cape Cod Bay Watch  

    Nuclear energy's long-term legacy is well known: radioactive waste that needs to be safely stored for thousands of years. At Entergy's Pilgrim nuclear reactor in Plymouth, operating since 1972, spent nuclear fuel is being stored on site - a solution that is not what was intended when the reactor was built and that is potentially dangerous.
     

    Recent News Coverage
    Pilgrim nuclear power plant back online, Patriot Ledger newspaper, Jan. 17, 2013.

    Pilgrim nuclear plant rainy day fund established, Old Colony Memorial newspaper/Wicked Local website, Jan. 9, 2013.

    A LOOK BACK AT 2012: The Fukushima effect, Old Colony Memorial newspaper/Wicked Local website, Dec. 31, 2012. An overview of efforts seeking enforcement at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station and some of our Pilgrim Coalition member organizations.
    MEMA TO CAPE COD  CITIZENS:  NO ESCAPE FROM THE CAPE IF NUCLEAR DISASTER
    Cape Downwinders
    By Cape Downwinders
    Bourne, MA - On Jan. 3, a Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) official told local officials and residents that the state agency is considering working on a traffic plan that would essentially ask Cape Codders to stay in place were a radiological accident to happen at Entergy's Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station (PNPS) in Plymouth. All of Cape Cod is within 37 miles of the facility and well within the 50 mile Ingestion Pathway Emergency Planning Zone.

     

    At the meeting requested by Cape Downwinders and attended by local emergency officials from Barnstable, Mashpee, and Bourne, and Seth Rolbein, Senator Wolf's chief advisor, MEMA Deputy Director Christine Packard told the group that MEMA has been in contact with Entergy Co., owners of the PNPS, to support and fund a traffic control study for Cape Cod. Ms. Packard reiterated that plans will be dealing with traffic control only and not address the lack of safety plans outside the 10 mile emergency planning zone (EPZ). The 'shadow evacuation' area extends 5 miles beyond the 10 mile EPZ and includes parts of Bourne and Sandwich. There are no evacuation instructions for those residents in that identified zone nor does MEMA plan to include any plans for Cape residents and visitors to evacuate.

     

    "There are no plans to evacuate us from danger. There are no plans to shelter us from danger," said Falmouth resident Bill Maurer, "but there are plans to control us during that danger which essentially insures that we will be exposed to that danger."

     

    According to Diane Turco of Cape Downwinders, MEMA Director Kurt Schwartz told the Barnstable Regional Emergency Planning Committee last October, "You will be in harm's way", acknowledging the serious irsk to people living on the Cape.

     

    "The state's response to citizen calls for public safety is to acknowledge Cape residents exposure to dangerous levels of radioactive materials and then relocate the population somewhere. The proposed traffic control plan is about controlling us to just stay put and take the hit.", said Turco.

     

    Organizers of the January 3 event said they were told by MEMA officials that the press would not be allowed at the meeting.

    About the Pilgrim Coalition. We are a non-partisan network of citizens and organizations dedicated to raising awareness of - and reducing - significant risks to public safety, health and our environment arising from the continued operation of Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, located in Plymouth, Massachusetts.