Another Pilgrim Watch Argument Denied

Another Pilgrim Watch request has been denied by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board

Last month, Pilgrim Watch went before the ASLB in a to argue for a hearing on two post-Fukushima orders issued by the NRC in March. One of the orders requires the owners of boiling water reactors (including Pilgrim) to ensure the reactors have reliable hardened vent system for the facility's containment structure.

The second order requires all U.S. nuclear power plant owners to demonstate a reliable means of monitoring spent fuel pool levels.

Pilgrim Watch of Duxbury argued that the NRC's orders are insufficient.

According to the ASLB's order, Pilgrim Watch alleges that the two orders adversely affect its members, many of whom, according to petitioner, reside within close proximity of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station.

As to the order on hardened vents, Pilgrim Watch asserts that the events at Fukushima reveal the order’s inadequacy in that (1) the order “lacks a requirement for licensees to install filters in the direct torus vents” and (2) the order “does not require the hardened DTV to be passively actuated by means of a rupture disc, so that neither water nor electrical supply is needed and operator intervention is not necessary to actuate the system.” As to the order on spent fuel pool instrumentation, Pilgrim Watch maintains that the events at Fukushima reveal the order’s inadequacy in that the order “lacks a requirement for licensees to re-equip their spent fuel pools to low-density, open-frame design and storage of assemblies >5 years removed from the reactor core placed in dry casks.”

In its order today, the ASLB panel rules that “it is clear on the basis of both judicial and Commission precedent that enforcement orders such as the two here-involved are not open to challenge in an adjudicatory proceeding on Pilgrim Watch’s claim of inadequacy.” Among other things, the judges cite an earlier Commission ruling that the “only issue in an NRC enforcement proceeding is whether the order should be sustained. … Boards are not to consider whether such orders need strengthening.”

Pilgrim Watch can appeal the decision to the five-member Commission that oversees the NRC.