BOSTON (Legal Newsline) – Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey announced a brief filing in support of Vermont’s call on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to make sure that it would use funds for decommissioning to clean up radioactive waste at closed power plants.
“With Entergy’s recent announcement that it will close the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station no later than 2019, we have grown increasingly focused on the need to ensure that the Pilgrim decommissioning trust funds will be used only for decommissioning, and that there will be sufficient funds to fully decontaminate the site,” Healey said. "Preserving these funds for their intended use is vital to the protection of Massachusetts residents and their tax dollars. We urge the NRC to do its job and ensure that decommissioning trust funds are used exclusively for the safe removal of dangerous radioactive material until that work is complete.”
Power plant owners have allegedly been taking decommissioning funds and using them for other activities, such as lobbying fees and spent fuel management. This is directly in contrast with the NRC’s regulations, which place strict limits on the use of the funds until radiological decontamination is complete. The agency, however, has recently allowed this to happen.