Newsletter Signup
Stay up to date on all the latest news from Boston.com
DPH: More money needed to keep up monitoring of closed Plymouth nuclear plant
The Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant closed in 2019.
A Department of Public Health official is warning that the state will not be able to keep up its current level of monitoring at a shuttered nuclear power plant in Plymouth if state legislators don’t require the plant’s owners to cover more costs.
State House News Service reported that Department of Public Health Commissioner Margret Cooke advised state lawmakers to force Holtec Decommissioning International, which owns the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant, to pay more to cover the cost of radiation monitoring at the plant on Monday.
Local
“This will ensure that area residents and communities are safe from accidental releases of radiation that could be disturbed by excavation or other activities during the decommissioning process,” Cooke said.
Advertisement:
The plant closed in 2019, but the state is required to monitor the plant while it is being decommissioned. SHNS reported that Holtec expects it can complete decommission by the end of 2027.
Holtec is required to help pay for monitoring, but the amount it must pay decreases as it gets closer to completion, Cooke said. This could leave a shortfall of between $160,000 and $450,00 that the DPH would have to make up for until the project was done, she said.
The DPH is adequately funded to keep monitoring for now, Cooke said, but that could change in the future.
“Without that ability to recover additional costs, DPH will likely have to significantly scale back air monitoring and environmental sampling throughout the decommissioning process,” Cooke said.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com