Terrier: Pilgrim's lack of progress on nuclear energy

By: Daisy

This morning, I had a nice walk with my human friend Rich along the Alewife Brook in Cambridge and Somerville. Along the brook, I enjoyed sniffing the dirt and plants (including thistle that evoked my ancestral Scotland). In fact, I got so enthusiastic that a friendly woman passer-by in a New York Mets cap remarked that there must be "something interesting" in all that vegetation!
Well, these simple yet enjoyable experiences -- sniffing some soil, exploring a brook -- could be in jeopardy for my fellow canines and their human companions farther south in Massachusetts. It's all because of the Pilgrim nuclear power plant in Plymouth.
Pilgrim has presented a problem for Massachusetts since 1972 -- 40 years ago. (That is 30 years older than me, at least in human years. Don't ask what it is in dog years.) Well, that 40-year span was the length of Pilgrim's original license, which was set to expire today, June 8. It was re-licensed for 20 more years last month, and a courageous band of patriots is trying to make sure its corporate owner Entergy listens to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and runs things more responsibly.


I'm all about small groups of individuals rising up against tyrants, whether it was Robert the Bruce standing up for Scottish independence at Bannockburn in 1314 ... or Paul Revere warning the colonists on his midnight ride in 1775. And what happened at a federal courthouse in Boston on Thursday was very much in that tradition.
Playing the role of a modern-day "band of embattled farmers," the brave group "Pilgrim Watch" made its case to the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, saying that under current conditions, Pilgrim might create a catastrophe on the scale of what happened at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in Japan last year. The media reports:

(The) main issue was Pilgrim Watch's objection to two enforcement orders that the NRC released in March. The orders aimed to correct possible weaknesses at U.S. plants that came to light after the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Japan. An earthquake and tsunami there sent three reactors into meltdown.

As I see it, Entergy is already playing with two strikes against it. First, in 2010, it had to stop tritium -- "a radioactive isotope of hydrogen," according to the EPA -- from leaking at one of its other plants, Vermont Yankee. The company reported that it "began work to support the remediation of soil and groundwater at the site."
Second, it doesn't treat its Pilgrim workers very well. It had to ship in workers from its 10 other nationwide plants after about 240 workers got locked out this week. The company says it has 650 "permanent employees." The issue of contention looks like health care, as it seems Pilgrim wants its employees to pay more for it. I would think Entergy should pick up the tab, as it is, after all, hiring people to work at a nuclear power plant.
So I hope that Entergy will listen to Pilgrim Watch, and that it will also re-open its doors to its locked-out workers. I also hope it realizes that its new 20-year license is not a blank check. A license is, after all, a mandate to operate responsibly. It's a little like my red heart-shaped rabies vaccine dog tag -- even though it shows I'm clean, it doesn't give me free rein to bite other dogs!
I will be keeping a watchful eye on Pilgrim. I don't want to see any three-eyed trout in the Alewife Brook ... or suddenly find I'm sprouting two tails.

Daisy is a 10-year-old West Highland white terrier living in Cambridge, Mass. Her column runs regularly.