Lots of protest groups come through the halls of the State House to impress upon the governor and lawmakers the importance of their causes, but few warn about an issue as potentially dire as the one heralded by the chorus calling for the immediate shutdown of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth.
Last week, Pilgrim's owner, Entergy Corp., announced that the plant will close by June 2019. The company blamed poor market conditions and increased operational costs for the decision to close.
"We cheered for about ten seconds, until we heard 2019, and that is not a closing," said Diane Turco from the group Cape Downwinders. "That is nonsense. That is a narrative that we reject … The real narrative is that it will continue to operate a degraded and dangerous nuclear reactor to 2019 and that is unacceptable."
A very large part of Entergy's increased costs come from safety upgrades the plant needed. After a winter shutdown for safety reasons, federal nuclear regulators decided to increase their oversight of the aging plant. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission then downgraded Pilgrim to one of it's lowest performance categories after an inspection team found degraded safety relief valves that may not have fully operated in certain conditions.
Pilgrim was just relicensed by the NRC in 2012 for an additional 20 years. If the plant stays open until 2019, it will only have been open for seven of the federally-authorized 20-year license.
"We appreciate those who support the plant and respect the right of plant opponents to make their opinions known," an Entergy spokeswoman said in a statement. "Our focus is on operating the plant safely and reliably up to our planned shutdown, expected no later than June 1, 2019, and then continuing with all safety protocols through ultimate decommissioning."
An early closure for Pilgrim would exacerbate an already serious problem in providing enough energy for the state, not to mention hitting benchmarks for clean energy generation in the coming years. Pilgrim already accounts for about 13 percent of the state's power generation and is a leading generator of clean energy in the state.
Whether Pilgrim shuts down now or in 2019, it will cause a huge blow to the state's supply of clean energy, which Gov. Charlie Baker's administration is trying to alleviate with additional hydropower and natural gas. Critics say that rearrangement of Massachusetts power sources would lead to competition being driven out of the market due to government mandates.
"Losing Pilgrim as a significant power generator not only poses a potential energy shortage, but also highlights the need for clean, reliable, affordable energy proposals which my administration has put forward through legislation to deliver affordable hydroelectricity and Class-I renewable resources," Baker wrote in a statement when the Pilgrim closure was announced.
"The closure of Pilgrim will be a significant loss of carbon-free electricity generation and will offset progress Massachusetts has made in achieving the 2020 greenhouse gas emission reduction goals, making it more challenging to hit these targets," Baker wrote.
Former Gov. Michael Dukakis has long supported doing away with Pilgrim. Dukakis was with activists in June at another State House rally against the plant in response to a series of shutdowns and questions about the plant's future.
Watch Video Of The Protest:
