Lawmakers eye new rules for nuclear safety

Jan 15 - Mary Ann Bragg Cape Cod Times, Hyannis, Mass.

Four pieces of legislation expected to be filed this week could reduce the threat of public harm on Cape Cod in the event of a disaster at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Rep. Sarah Peake and Seth Rolbein, a senior adviser to Sen. Daniel Wolf, announced Monday at a Cape Cod National Seashore Advisory Commission meeting.

The nine-member commission represents the six Cape Cod towns within the boundaries of the Seashore along with county, state and federal representatives. The commission wrote to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in March stating its opposition to the relicensing of the Pilgrim nuclear plant due to the potential threat to public safety and the environment.

A 20-year license extension for the 40-year-old power plant was approved May 29 despite opposition from groups in the region. The announcement of new legislative tactics was part of an update the commission had sought from public officials about existing emergency plans for the region.

The Seashore encompasses 44,000 acres of public and private lands, and employs about 100 people year-round and another 200 to 250 people in the summer. About 4.5 million people visited the Seashore in 2011, according to federal records.

The Seashore is prepared for hurricanes and hazardous material spills, but not for a nuclear plant emergency, Superintendent George Price said Monday.

"It was the Japan incident that made us all sit up," he said, referring to the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in Japan that experienced a meltdown in March 2011.

The legislation Peake plans to file with at least one fellow legislator requires the state emergency management agency to determine if Barnstable County is prepared for a radiological emergency at the Plymouth plant, along with Essex County in relation to a nearby nuclear power plant in Seabrook, N.H. The proposed legislation would require the state agency to determine the appropriateness of additional local programs.

"We're trying to word this pretty carefully" to avoid conflicts with federal regulations, Peake said Monday. If the state emergency agency finds that there is no plan, then that could give citizens an opportunity to approach state leaders with that information and ask for a review of the plants' federal licenses, she said.

The second piece of legislation would provide more funding for the state department of public health to expand the geographic areas for real-time radiological air quality monitoring, to include the Berkshires, Cape Cod and Essex County, Peake said. The third piece of legislation would expand the emergency preparedness zoning areas from the current 10-mile radius to 20 miles.

Rolbein said the legislation that Wolf will propose would assess a fee, as allowed under state law, on spent fuel rods that remain in the initial wet storage facility, and reduce fees as an incentive when the fuel rods are moved to a safer dry-storage facility.

"I support it," said David Agnew, a founding member of Cape Downwinders, which opposes the plant. "The (owners) don't want to spend money. They're satisfying their shareholders at the expense of everyone in the region."

The Pilgrim plant began operating commercially in 1972 under ownership of Boston Edison Company. It was sold to Entergy Nuclear in 1999.

"The plant has operated safely for the last 40 years, and it's going to continue to operate safely," said Entergy Nuclear spokeswoman Carol Wightman said Monday. "That's our highest priority every single day."

She declined to comment on the legislative proposals until the company has had an opportunity to review them.

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