Want more proof that nuclear power is the wrong answer for the climate crisis? Promoters continuously overlooked the cost of decommissioning a nuclear power that has reached the end of its operational life, in their public relations campaigns to make nuclear power "too cheap to meter", Decommissioning costs more than dollar and cents as the owners of Fukushima are finding out. TEPCO wants to dump millions of radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean from its ruined reactors in the spring of 2023, and is meeting stiff resistance to their proposal. What to do with radioactive waste products from nuclear power plants are proving to be a major, expensive headache. Another case in point: Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station on Cape Cod Bay, The generating station closed in 2019 after producing power for nearly fifty years. A boiling water reactor (BWR), it continuously circulated water inside the reactor vessel to be turned into steam that spun turbines to produce electricity. That water became intensely radioactive. Holtec International, which is decommissioning the plant, wants to treat the radioactive water and dump it into Cape Cod Bay. Understandably, locals including shell fishers, are opposed to the idea. Just like the people in Japan. [photo credit: AP]
Allowing Holtec to do so could set a precedent in the USA since decommissioning is in its infancy. Most nuclear plants here were built between 1970 and 1990. The oldest are now reaching the end of their operational life. Holtec has made a business out of acquiring old plants like Oyster Creek in New Jersey, Indian Point in New York, and Palisades on Lake Michigan and dismantling them for profit. Obviously Cape Cod is not an isolated "national sacrifice zone" like Hanford, Washington; it is a tourist Mecca. The though of contaminating seafood and seawater with radioactive waste is a hard sell. Holtec says discharging the water into the bay is nothing new. The plant did it regularly with no noticeable environmental effects under its operating license from the Nuclear Regulatory Agency, which received regular reports about the discharges. In recent years, Pilgrim discharged the largest volumes in 2011 and 2013, totaling about a half million gallons. The discharges were well below federal exposure limits. There are other, more expensive options for dealing with the waste water. One is shipping it elsewhere for treatment and disposal, which is what happened at Vermont Yankee when it shut down in 2014. NorthStar, a competitor of Holtec, is dismantling that plant.
Cape Cod Bay is home to a $5.1 million oyster farming industry. An industry representative said dumping the radioactive waste water in the bay would devastate local economies. Tribal leaders, real estate agents, fishers, and local officials have all expressed opposition to the idea. “We can’t change [previous discharges], but we can change what’s happening in the future,” said a state lawmaker. “It’s the first time it has ever been decommissioned, so to compare this to the past is a convenient excuse. ‘Well, we did it in the past,’ that sounds like my kid.” Holtec needs to obtain EPA permission before dumping into the bay can occur if the waste water contains contaminates other than nucleotides produced in the plant's operation, such as heavy metals. No additional approval is required from the NRC. Holtec has not characterized the contents of the water associated with decommissioning for the New England region of EPA. Holtec told the press it is examine the water for pollutants, but test results are not available yet. Meanwhile, state officials, including the Attorney General's office, which would "take any Clean Water Act violations seriously."