There was no place else for the irradiated spent fuel to go. Over the years, more than 4,000 spent fuel assemblies were put into the pool - five times more than it was designed to hold. "Before they were ever irradiated - that was the last time they saw the light of day. "When their service life ended they went into the pool," he says. Holtec spokesman Pat O’Brien says all the fuel assemblies ever used at Pilgrim were stored in the 40-foot deep pool above the reactor. But Cesium-137, like that released by the Chernobyl disaster, remains dangerous for decades and Plutonium-239 must be isolated, essentially, forever. Some of the radioactive waste produced decays harmlessly in days, weeks and months. In the reactor they became intensely hot and radioactive. There were millions of pellets placed into rods, then bundled into fuel assemblies. Each pellet generated the energy equivalent of a ton of coal, with no carbon emissions. It came in pellets, each the size of a pencil eraser and weighing a third of an ounce. Radioactive Fuel's Long And Uncertain Future It’s not very large,” says Noyes, carefully guiding the way along the marked path on the floor. “The fuel was very densely packed inside of it. It’s surprisingly small, just 21 feet in diameter and 58 feet tall, yet Pilgrim produced enough electricity to power 700,000 homes. In two years, CDI workers have removed the massive concrete blocks that shielded the top of the reactor, revealing the core of the reactor vessel. The plant’s GE-Mark I reactor was the same model as those at the ill-fated Fukushima nuclear plants. Several times ,the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) considered it the worst run reactor in the nation. Noyes witnessed much of Pilgrim’s troubled history. “We made a commitment when we were operating to see this through.” “A lot of us have stepped up to the challenge to decommission the site,” Noyes says. Decommissioning compliance manager Dave Noyes by the reactor building at the Pilgrim nuclear power plant. He’s now senior compliance manager with Comprehensive Decommissioning International (CDI), the company overseeing the cleanup. The company is owned by Holtec and SNC-Lavalin of Canada. The money was collected from utility customers and invested to pay for dismantling and decontaminating the plant when it came to the end of its productive life.ĭavid Noyes came out of retirement to head-up the Pilgrim clean-up. In return, Holtec got access to a billion-dollar decommissioning fund, sort of like a nuclear 401k. The New Jersey-based company reportedly paid $1,000 for Pilgrim –security locks, stock and 47 years of highly-radioactive nuclear waste.
For 32 years, he worked at Pilgrim, rising from reactor operator to senior manager with Entergy, the company that owned and operated the plant until 2019 when it sold it to Holtec International. Noyes knows the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant inside and out. (Robin Lubbock/WBUR) Radiation Protection Technologist Adrian Lombardo checks equipment for any radioactivity before allowing it into the work area.
Radiation monitors measure how much radiation a person receives while in the plant. “We’re going to go through the primary radiological check point to get into the radiologically controlled area,” he says. Visitors are questioned, inspected and scanned repeatedly before being allowed to enter Pilgrim’s inner sanctum: the reactor.ĭavid Noyes has access to all areas of the plant but still goes through the strict security measures he swipes his magnetic badge and the doors to a security lock swoosh open. Security, Security, SecurityĮven though Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant stopped producing electricity two years ago, there are still armed guards in watchtowers, surveillance cameras spread over the site, mazes of barbed wire fences and concrete vehicle barriers.Įntry to the shuttered plant is highly restricted. But as the decommissioning of Pilgrim proceeds, concern over the long-term safety of the highly radioactive waste continues. The rare occasion will be celebrated by both supporters and opponents of the plant.
It will be stored outside in special steel and cement casks. All the radioactive fuel that generated electricity - and controversy - for nearly half a century will finally be removed from the reactor building. Just before Thanksgiving, the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Plymouth is expected to reach a historic milestone. A decommissioning crew works on dismantling the plant at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station.