Entergy Corporation said Thursday that it intends to refuel the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Mass., next year for the last time and call a halt to the plant's operational life on May 31, 2019.
The decision nails down the closure date for a plant that industry observers knew was in limbo. Previously, the corporation said that it would shut down the plant in a time frame of 2017-2019. That decision banked on whether or not Entergy would allow the plant one more refueling, which the corporation said it would do for one last time in 2017.
The Pilgrim plant, 38 miles southeast of Boston, is a General Electric Type 3 Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) that was granted its original operating license in June of 1972. Its license was renewed in May of 2012, at which point the plant was given a green light to continue through June 2032. Based on that date, the plant is closing prematurely by 13 years.
To some, the decision on Thursday feels like a two-year reprieve, given the decision to refuel the reactor one more time. “We are pleased that we will be able to keep our team of hardworking professional employees actively engaged in safe operations for the next three years and in a return to regular NRC and industry oversight,” said Pilgrim site vice president John Dent.
One more refueling also means millions of dollars will be circulated in the local and U.S. economy. The 2015 refueling outage resulted in a $70 million investment including $25 million in new equipment. That refueling also included the addition of nearly 2,000 employees at the plant, including 1,184 contracted workers, who performed hundreds of inspection and maintenance tasks.
The plant now moves towards a relatively novel, but increasingly familiar phase of a nuclear plant's life: Decommissioning.
Entergy said that planning for decommissioning would begin with the “formation of a dedicated team of individuals with both decommissioning and Pilgrim plant experience.”
The team will be tasked to develop a Post-Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report, which will outline the steps, the schedule, the cost and the environmental impacts of decommissioning. “That plan, due no later than two years after shutdown, is a public document sent to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for review,” said Entergy, which also announced it would form a Nuclear Decommissioning Citizen's Advisory Engagement Panel to share information on the process with the public.