| Pilgrim Nuclear Generating Station | |
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| Location | Plymouth, MA |
| Coordinates | |
| Status | Operational |
| Construction began | Bechtel |
| Commission date | December 9, 1972 |
| Licence expiration | June 8, 2012 |
| Operator(s) | Entergy |
| Reactor information | |
| Reactor type(s) | BWR-3 |
| Reactor supplier(s) | General Electric |
| Power generation information | |
| Installed capacity | 685 MW |
| Annual generation | 5,119 GW·h |
| Website Pilgrim |
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Pilgrim Nuclear Generating Station is currently the only nuclear power plant operating in the United States Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is located in the Manomet section of Plymouth on Cape Cod Bay, south of the tip of Rocky Point and north of Priscilla Beach. Like many similar plants, it was constructed by Bechtel, and is powered by a General Electric boiling water reactor and generator -- a General Electric Mark I reactor of the same type and design as the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant.[1] It has a 690 MW production capacity. Pilgrim generates enough power for nearly 600,000 homes.
Built at a cost of $231 million in 1972 by Boston Edison, it was sold in 1999 to the Louisiana-based Entergy Corporation, part of a complex deal that is the result of deregulation of the electrical utility industry.
On April 11, 1986 a recurring equipment problems force emergency shutdown of the plant. The resulting issue cost $1.001 billion.
Pilgrim keeps its spent nuclear fuel in an on-site storage pool, waiting for federal direction on the correct disposal process. The Yucca Mountain site in Nevada was being considered for this purpose until its deselection in 2009.
Pilgrim's license to operate expires in 2012. An application for an extended operating license (until 2032) is under consideration by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as of 2010[update].[2]
Opposition to Pilgrim's license extension in recent years has come mainly from a local watchdog group, Pilgrim Watch, which has filed legal and procedural challenges, largely on behalf of neighboring towns. The state attorney general has also raised questions about, among other issues, the possible danger posed by storage of spent nuclear fuel at the Plymouth site.[3]
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The Nuclear Regulatory Commission defines two emergency planning zones around nuclear power plants: a plume exposure pathway zone with a radius of 10 miles (16 km), concerned primarily with exposure to, and inhalation of, airborne radioactive contamination, and an ingestion pathway zone of about 50 miles (80 km), concerned primarily with ingestion of food and liquid contaminated by radioactivity.[4]
The 2010 U.S. population within 10 miles (16 km) of Pilgrim was 75,835, an increase of 40.5 percent in a decade, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data for msnbc.com. The 2010 U.S. population within 50 miles (80 km) was 4,737,792, an increase of 10.2 percent since 2000. Cities within 50 miles include Boston (35 miles to city center).[5]
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's estimate of the risk each year of an earthquake intense enough to cause core damage to the reactor at Pilgrim was 1 in 14,493, according to an NRC study published in August 2010.[6][7]