Holtec International, an energy technology company, took ownership of the shuttered Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Massachusetts in 2019, and received a decommissioning trust fund of more than $1 billion to cover the cost of dismantling the reactor. The power plant contains 1.1 million gallons of nuclear wastewater that has been sitting inside a cooling compartment on the power plant property.
Holtec plans to discharge the water into Cape Cod Bay, but the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has warned Holtec that unauthorized discharges into the Bay would be violation of the Clean Water Act. Holtec initially indicated that they might dump water illegally and be willing to absorb the cost of any fines, but at a January 23 meeting of the Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel, a representative of Holtec International said the company is still pursuing changing a discharge permit that would allow it to legally discharge the radioactive wastewater into Cape Cod Bay and will not discharge spent fuel pool water until that permit modification process is completed.
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