Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station officials acknowledge shut down possibility

PLYMOUTH – If you read between the lines in the statement released by Entergy just after the Nuclear Regulatory Commission downgraded the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station’s performance status earlier this month it was there: the possibility of closure.

“Entergy is focused on safe operations,” Entergy/Pilgrim Senior Communication Specialist Lauren Burm told the Old Colony two weeks ago, adding “No decisions to keep open or close Pilgrim have been made.”

“Entergy will always ensure funding necessary for the safe operation of its plants is in place,” Burm added. “If we cannot operate a plant safely and make the needed investments to maintain safety, then we will not operate that plant.”

Now the plant’s director of regulatory performance, David Noyes, has put the issue in financial terms.

“If the corporation finds that the cost of making the improvements to the plant exceed the value of the plant,” Noyes said in a report published this week, “the corporation may decide to shut the plant down.”

Asked to provide a more detailed description of the costs that could affect that final decision, Noyes said, first, that he needed to be clear that the costs in any inspection process were case specific, as defined by the NRC after a rigorous evaluation process.

“The kinds of things that would be included in the restoration of the regulatory performance, “ Noyes explained, “would be an independent review of the station’s safety culture – an assessment done by a third party.
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