JOBS & ECONOMY
UWUA Local 369 Members, Elected Officials, Concerned Residents and Labor Leaders to Rally at State House to Demand Entergy put Safety before Profits
Area leaders say enough is enough – Louisiana-based Entergy continues to ignore the safety of the community by keeping experienced union workers off the job as issues continue to mount at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant
BRAINTREE, MA PRNewswire via COMTEX Source →
Labor leaders, concerned citizens and a host of Commonwealth elected leaders will join the Utility Workers Union of America Local 369 for a rally outside the State House to protest Louisiana-based Entergy Corp’s ongoing lockout of experienced workers at Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant. The rally takes place Thursday, June 28th at 1:00 pm.
“It’s time for Entergy to choose safety over profits.”Dan Hurley, president of UWUA Local 369
Locked-out Pilgrim workers slam Entergy over canceled emergency drill
Evan Allen, Boston Globe Source →
“By having untrained workers in there, and not preparing them for emergencies, it’s disgusting. It just shows you that they put profits over the safety of the workers and the safety of the community.”Dan Hurley, president of the Utility Workers Union of America Local 369
2.206 Enforcement Petition Regarding PNPS Labor Dispute
Groups file Petition with NRC to shut down Pilgrim during UWUA local 369 strike
Pilgrim Watch, Jones River Watershed Association, Pilgrim Coalition, and Freeze Pilgrim petition the NRC to shut Pilgrim down pending resolution of labor dispute that is fully satisfactory to workers in order to protect public health and safety and to assure that workers are treated fairly. Pilgrim’s out-of-state owners care only about their profits, not about the people who live and work here!
Pursuant to §2.206 of Title 10 in the Code of Federal Regulations, Petitioners request that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) initiate a proceeding pursuant to §2.202 of Title 10 in the Code of Federal Regulations.
Summary
Reactor: Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, Plymouth, Massachusetts
Request for Enforcement Action: Require Pilgrim NPS to cease operations due to the threat to public safety due to: the current lock out of its non-essential workers; a likely strike; and Entergy’s refusal to honor the demands of U.W.U.A. local 369 workers.
Facts that constitute the basis for taking this action: discussed herein
Job Issues Relating to Pilgrim Decommissioning
Entergy employs 422 workers at Pilgrim.
Recently, 380 workers in Local 369, Utility Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO, voted to strike if a contract isn’t reached by May 15, 2012. Nearly all 380 employees are in high-level roles.
Taking Pilgrim off-line permanently does not mean immediate job loss.
A large work force will be needed to decommission, a process that would take at least 7 years. Workers will be needed for the safe storage of existing radioactive waste fuel at the site for decades—at least until the federal government builds a nuclear waste storage depository. Entergy owns many other sites for job transfers, and the nuclear industry as a whole is understaffed for skilled workers, so these workers are in demand.
Maine Yankee (MY) provides a case study for decommissioning.
MY was somewhat larger than Pilgrim (840 MW vs. 715 MW), although Pilgrim has been operating longer and has more spent fuel. MY was decommissioned 11 years short of its 35-year expected operating life. Decommissioning took 7 years after closing, from 1997 to 2004. On-site storage of spent fuel rods is expected to last for 30 years, and requires on-site maintenance. MY employed 360 on-site workers at the time it stopped operating, after two years there were 200 working, but by 2002 there were 430 people employed in decommissioning. Maine Yankee found workers leaving so quickly for jobs elsewhere that the company had to institute a “Golden Handcuffs” program, bonuses to retain needed workers.
Unfair to Entergy? Or to Massachusetts?
Entergy bought Pilgrim in 1999 for the equivalent of $11 million (about the cost of the new fuel load then being delivered). Boston Edison, the prior owner, was made whole by deregulation of energy companies. Entergy owns a decommissioning division.
The real question is the cost to the Commonwealth if something goes wrong.
Entergy formed a limited liability company for Pilgrim, and the federal Price Anderson Act caps Entergy’s liability, and excludes clean-up costs. The Commonwealth and Federal government —i.e. taxpayers and area residents—will bear the extraordinary burden of any significant accident. Pilgrim is among the oldest nuclear generating facilities still operating in the country and the world.
Entergy owns and operates power plants in the U.S. with about 30,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity, and is the second-largest nuclear generator in the U.S., owning 10 nuclear plants. Its’ 2010 revenues were $11 billion.
“Economic Consequences of the Early Closure of Maine Yankee Atomic Power Plant, Wiscasset, Maine, the First Five Years” By Ray Shadis, consulting technical advisor to New England Coalition
“Maine Yankee Decommissioning Experience Report, Detailed Experiences, 1997-2004″ Prepared for EPRI and Maine Yankee by New Horizon Scientific, LLC
Wikipedia.org: Entergy →
Entergy website: Decommissioning →
WATD 95.9: Pilgrim workers set deadline →
