This is scary seeing the plant is less than 50 miles from my home.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Pilgrim Station is currently the only nuclear power plant operating in the United States Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is located in the Manomet section of Plymouth on Cape Cod Bay, south of the tip of Rocky Point and north of Priscilla Beach. Like many similar plants, it was constructed by Bechtel, and is powered by a General Electric boiling water reactor and generator — a General Electric Mark I reactor of the same type and design as the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. It has a 690 MW production capacity. Pilgrim generates enough power for nearly 600,000 homes.
Built at a cost of $231 million in 1972 by Boston Edison, it was sold in 1999 to the Louisiana-based Entergy Corporation, part of a complex deal that is the result of deregulation of the electrical utility industry.
Pilgrim keeps its spent nuclear fuel in an on-site storage pool, waiting for federal direction on the correct disposal process. The Yucca Mountain site in Nevada was being considered for this purpose until its deselection in 2009.
Pilgrim’s license to operate expires in 2012. An application for an extended operating license (until 2032) is under consideration by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as of 2010.[2]
Opposition to Pilgrim’s license extension in recent years has come mainly from a local watchdog group, Pilgrim Watch, which has filed legal and procedural challenges, largely on behalf of neighboring towns. The state attorney general has also raised questions about, among other issues, the possible danger posed by storage of spent nuclear fuel at the Plymouth site.[3]
2 comments
92p1060
March 16, 2011 at 2:22 PM (UTC -4)
Responsible for more deaths in America than nuclear reactors: planes, trains and automobiles | tcot ocra teaparty p2
jebernier
March 21, 2011 at 9:30 PM (UTC -4)
I agree, you don’t need an earthquake or tsunami. Any kind of accident can cause radiation leak in the storage pool. I hope there is a non-fly zone with quick response to scramble jets if needed.