Massachusetts will not allow the company decommissioning the former Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station to discharge treated nuclear wastewater into Cape Cod Bay.published Thursday. According to the department, they cannot allow plant owner Holtec to discharge the water because Cape Cod Bay is protected under the state's Ocean Sanctuaries Act.
Holtec had hoped to dump 1.1 million gallon of treated water from the site into the bay. The water had been used to cool spent nuclear fuel rods. The process is legal and deemed safe provided the water does not exceed radioactivity levels set by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The federal agency has published an
“This was always going to be a known byproduct of having operated a facility like this,” she said. “So it will really be up to them to evaluate the options. Certainly, trucking and rail are among the options to safely dispose of materials like this.” "Holtec acts as though the local residents and communities have no say in what happens around their plants because they claim impunity arising from federal preemption of state and local authority," he said."The reality is state laws do apply, we do have a say and APCC and others refused to back down and made the case that this denial was not only right, but required by the law.