The owner of the closed Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth has lost an appeal seeking to release radioactive wastewater into Cape Cod Bay as part of the plant decommissioning.
The long-awaited decision by the Department of Environmental Protection could prompt Holtec International to take the matter to Superior Court.
Andrew Gottlieb, executive director of the Association to Preserve Cape Cod, called the decision a victory for the environment and the community.
“From a Cape Cod Bay perspective, it's a clean and resounding win,” he said. “The outcome that we sought has been achieved, which is to protect it from the discharge.”
His organization was granted status as an intervenor in the case, allowing it to help defend the Department of Environmental Protection's previous denial.
Holtec spokesman Patrick O’Brien said releasing the water is safe.
He said Holtec’s original plan to clean up the waterfront property for reuse within eight years has been delayed by opponents' challenges to "safe discharges, which had occurred for over 45 years of plant operation and are regulated by the [Nuclear Regulatory Commission].”
But Gottlieb countered that Holtec’s resistance to shipping the water to a licensed disposal facility, as it has done with some of the other radioactive material from the plant, has also delayed the decommissioning.
“This would be a perfect opportunity for Holtec to act in a way that reflects their sunny rhetoric,” he said, referring to the company’s pledges to do right by the community. “I'd love to be pleasantly surprised.”
Holtec is reviewing its options, O’Brien said. The company could appeal in Superior Court or seek reconsideration from the same office within the Department of Environmental Protection that already handled the appeal.
In July of 2024, the department denied Holtec’s application to release up to 1.1 million gallons of wastewater.
The water contains radioactive material and other contaminants. Most can be removed through treatment, but not all.
The department determined that discharging the water would violate the state’s Ocean Sanctuaries Act. The law prohibits non-grandfathered releases of industrial waste into a designated Ocean Sanctuary, including Cape Cod Bay.
Holtec Decommissioning International — a subsidiary of Holtec International — appealed in August of 2024, putting the decision in limbo, until now.
The company argued that water discharge from Pilgrim is grandfathered and that federal law preempts state decisions on nuclear waste.
Environmental appeals of this type go to the Office of Appeals and Dispute Resolution, which the Healey administration describes as an independent office within the Department of Environmental Protection.
After three days of hearings last year, a presiding officer issued a recommendation against Holtec in November. But it would not take effect until the department commissioner, Bonnie Heiple, reviewed the recommendation, revised it if necessary, and issued a final decision.
The decision she issued this week revises and expands part of the legal analysis, saying it should focus more on a 2019 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Virginia Uranium, Inc. v. Warren.
The case addressed a potential conflict between state and federal law. The Court determined that the federal Atomic Energy Act did not preempt a Virginia law banning uranium mining.
Power generation at Pilgrim ended when the reactor was shut down in May of 2019.
Wastewater in the plant is evaporating into the outdoor air. Once more than 1 million gallons, the volume had fallen by May to about 794,000 gallons.
People on both sides of the Pilgrim debate — for and against discharging the water — have suggested that air pollution from evaporation could pose a bigger hazard than the water.
How best to dispose of the water remains disputed.
