Deeper look at safety of Pilgrim pipes

Hearing at key stage in 20-year license bid

An expert panel will be in Plymouth April 10 to consider the risk of leaks in the Pilgrim nuclear plant’s underground pipes. (Globe Staff Photo / David L. Ryan)

Email|Print|Single Page| Text size – + By Robert Knox

Globe Correspondent / March 27, 2008

A panel of three nuclear power experts is holding a hearing next month on whether the Pilgrim nuclear power plant must do more to protect the public against the possibility of leaks of radioactive liquid from the plant's buried pipes and tanks.

The long-awaited evidentiary hearing will consider a challenge by a citizens group to the 20-year license extension sought by the plant. Both sides will offer testimony, and witnesses will face questioning by the panel. The experts are chosen by federal regulators overseeing the application by the Plymouth facility to renew its license, which expires in 2012.

The April 10 hearing will take place at 9 a.m. at the Radisson Hotel, 180 Water St., in Plymouth. Public comment will be permitted the evening before the hearing from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the hotel. Members of the public will be allowed to make statements of five minutes or less on concerns relating to the subject of the hearing. Although these statements are not considered testimony, federal regulators said they may assist the panel in its consideration of the issues.

The hearing will focus entirely on the contention by the citizens watchdog group Pilgrim Watch that the plant's owner must take more extensive measures to protect against the possibility of leaks of radioactive liquid from the plant's buried pipes and tanks. No other issues can be raised in the courtroom-like setting.

The hearing follows a lengthy petition procedure by the group that began almost two years ago. Pilgrim Watch, which initially opposed Pilgrim's renewal over a wide range of concerns - including risk of terrorism - will try to persuade the panel that the plant's owner, Entergy Nuclear Operations, must install costly monitoring wells to protect against underground leaks.

The Duxbury-based watchdog group has argued that the methods of identifying and repairing leaks used by the plant in the past do not go far enough as the plant ages.

"Things are more likely to fail, or need repair, as they get older," said Mary Lampert, president of Pilgrim Watch.

Entergy will defend its plans to protect against that risk without installing leak detection devices. The company will visually inspect the plant's underground components when on-site excavation provides an opportunity and will use an ultrasonic procedure. Plans call for every underground component to be inspected once every 10 years. Entergy officials contend that while the plant is aging - it will be 40 years old when the current license expires in four years - almost all its components have been replaced.

Pilgrim spokesman David Tarantino also said the plant recently installed four wells to monitor ground water on the site. Samples are sent to the state Department of Public Health, Tarantino said.

The panel, comprising members of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, has reviewed written contentions submitted by both sides and by Nuclear Regulatory Commission staffers, who back Entergy's position, and reduced the hearing's scope to testimony on a few central points.

The panel asked Entergy to provide evidence of how large a leak its underground pipes and tanks could withstand without a safety problem. It asked both sides to offer opinions on how quickly small leaks might grow into large ones. And it asked Pilgrim Watch to back up claims about the vulnerability of Pilgrim's buried components to corrosion, pinholes, and any other problems that have caused leaks of liquid contaminants at other nuclear facilities.

Pilgrim Watch plans to rely on technical testimony on the vulnerability of buried pipes by 35-year nuclear engineer Arnold Gunderson and hydrologist David Ahlfeld. If the panel rules for Entergy, Pilgrim's license renewal could be acted upon by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission - almost certainly favorably - by June or July. If it finds for Pilgrim Watch, the timeline is less clear.

"The three judges operate autonomously, so they can rule as they deem appropriate," NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said by e-mail.

"It would be speculation at this point." he said, "to say whether the panel's ruling could push back the date for a final decision on the Pilgrim application."

Robert Knox can be contacted at rc.knox@gmail.com.