Downwinders see momentum in bid to close PilgrimApr 19 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Sean Teehan Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, Mass.
Opponents of the Plymouth nuclear power plant are optimistic about winning nonbinding ballot questions and town meeting warrant articles they have placed before voters in all but one Cape Cod town. After spending months getting signatures on petitions, the Cape Downwinders, a group that calls for the closing of Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, are now holding informational workshops focusing on what they see as the dangers posed by the plant. "I'm confident that it has a good chance, but we need to do more education," anti-Pilgrim activist Paul Rifkin said. "These workshops are very helpful in that regard." Barnstable, which does not have elections until the fall, is the only Cape town that does not have a warrant article or ballot question calling for Gov. Deval Patrick to approach the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission and demand Pilgrim be closed. Provincetown's town meeting has already passed a warrant article -- 197 in favor and 2 against -- said Arlene Williamson, a Downwinders member. A Downwinders-sponsored meeting, scheduled for April 26 at Mashpee Town Hall, will focus on what the group sees as the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency's lack of a traffic plan for an emergency evacuation of Cape Cod in the case of a nuclear disaster at Pilgrim, said Williamson. State Sen. Dan Wolf, D-Harwich, is scheduled to speak, Williamson said. A MEMA spokesman did not return a message from the Times requesting comment. Williamson said she expects a good turnout at the meeting, and she also predicts some of the attendees will speak out against the Downwinders' calls for Pilgrim's closure. "There's a lot of controversy with nuclear power," Williamson said. "There are going to be people who are nuclear supporters." Similar meetings have been held recently in Falmouth and Bourne, Williamson said. The group plans to hold more before town elections and town meetings. The Downwinders' discontent with NRC officials stems from the committee's approval last year of a 20-year extension of the 40-year-old plant. The plant exceeds industry averages for automatic shutdowns and unplanned power changes. Pilgrim powered down Sunday night for a scheduled refueling, a statement from Entergy Nuclear, the company that owns Pilgrim, said. A leak-rate test of the plant's primary containment air lock failed. "It's been happening a lot," Williamson said of Pilgrim's shutdowns. "That leaves room to wonder, when's the big one?" Entergy spokeswoman Carol Wightman told the Times earlier this week that the plant's shutdown was planned, not a mishap. She declined to comment on the Pilgrim-related warrant articles and ballot questions. Rifkin, who has been arrested for trespassing at Pilgrim during protests twice since last May, describes some of his political causes as being "outside the mainstream." But he thinks support for the Downwinders' cause has grown in the past year. "There's a momentum that's taking place that encourages us," Rifkin said. "We do feel we're closer ... than a year ago." http://www.energycentral.com/functional/news/news_detail.cfm?did=28309191 |