MA State House – September 3, 2015
Open Letter and Appeal to Governor Baker
to Intervene and Call for Closure of the Pilgrim Nuclear Plant
Citizens Across the Commonwealth Call for Exercise of Executive Action
Dear Governor Baker,
It is now official! The NRC today designated, with the lowest ratings now registered, the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant for functioning as a dangerous and error prone facility.
A supplemental inspection will now review again the high number of emergency shutdowns and the failed human performance, failed procedure quality, and erratic equipment performance associated with these events. This legacy of uninterrupted performance decline for the past 10 years, has reached a new nadir.
The NRC will also decide, ” whether additional regulatory actions are necessary to arrest the licensee/plant performance”.
Yet today, after a previous company sponsored “show and tell” visit, you were quoted as expressing unshakable confidence in the safety of the Plant. Ironically, the NRC, the “experts”, have told you today that they do not share your unwarranted confidence.
Cape Downwinders and citizens across the Commonwealth applaud the NRC interim plan that includes the potential issuance of an order to close Pilgrim. In the event of a nuclear release, Boston is only 36 air miles from Pilgrim’s unfiltered air vents. The entire state is at risk.
There is no more need to wait for more failed inspections, which is the repeating pattern. It is time for the NRC to uphold it’s mandate to ensure public health and safety by revoking the operating license immediately. Pilgrim is a proven failure. It is time to shutter Pilgrim before the next emergency is the last. The undeniable facts are before us.
Accordingly, we request and petition you, in your capacity as the Commonwealth’s Chief Executive and Safety Office and party to these deliberations, to call upon the NRC for the immediate shutdown and decommissioning of the Plant. Only this action will insure the safety of all citizens, and preserve our properties and institutions.
For Cape Downwinders/MA Downwinders/Boston Downwinders/No More Fukushimas/On Behalf of Planet Earth/Occupy Hingham
Don Barton, Mashpee
Diane Turco, Harwich
Elaine Dickinson, Harwich
Doug Long, Orleans
Susan Carpenter, Dennis
Arthur Dickinson, Harwich
Margaret Stevens, Bourne
Elizabeth Gerlach, Newton
Mary Conathan, Chatham
Bruce Skud, Newburyport
Guntam Mueller, Newton
Suzanne Sullivan, Brewster
Joanna Hammond, Amesbury
Susan Mirsky, Newton