Numerous Cape Codders went to the trouble of bussing to Boston recently to urge Gov. Patrick to write a letter to the NRC requesting the closing of Pilgrim nuclear power plant. The Governor complied and sent that letter. The response of Entergy, the company that owns the plant: essentially, yadda yadda yadda. Whatever. Water off a duck’s back.
Patrick’s letter notes that “there is no viable evacuation plan” from Cape Cod. This is not news. Everyone who reads a newspaper has known this for years. In 40-some years no one has been able to come up with an evacuation plan.
The response of Joyce McMahon, spokesperson for Entergy: “In the highly unlikely event of a large evacuation it would be done in an orderly fashion to ensure the safety of the public.” What? What is there about “there is no evacuation plan” she doesn’t understand? It’s just an insulting, contemptuous stonewall.
Patrick wrote a pretty good letter. I imagine those who rallied at his office are giving it an A minus. The letter mentions the salient facts that all Cape towns have called for the closure of the plant, that Cape residents would be “at serious risk should there be an accident,” that numerous problems have put Pilgrim on the NRC’s own list of troubled plants. But the wording of the actual request to close the plant is a problem: “I urge you to require that the plant be decommissioned should Pilgrim not comply with all health, safety, and environment regulations.”
“Should Pilgrim not,” that condition which seems to ignore the reality that the plant is already in non- compliance, allows McMahon (stifling a yawn) to deliberately ignore the obvious intent of the letter and construe it as “no more than a request for the NRC to fulfill the role it has at every plant every day. It does not appear that he is calling for anything above and beyond to be done at Pilgrim.” Ho Hum.
The governor should have been more careful in his wording. The company should be held in contempt.
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