Plymouth Delegation Urges Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy to Support Assessment for Spent Fuel Rods at Pilgrim

April 26, 2006 - BOSTON, MA - Senator Therese Murray (D-Plymouth), Chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, Representative Vinny deMacedo (R-Plymouth) and Representative Tom O’Brien (D-Kingston) encouraged the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy yesterday to support legislation they filed to impose an assessment on Entergy for the storage of their spent fuel rods in Plymouth.

“The town of Plymouth is one of the fastest growing towns in Massachusetts, and as a result must deal with a wide array of fiscal challenges. One of the town’s most frustrating fiscal burdens is the growing public safety costs associated with the storage of spent nuclear fuel,” said Murray, the Senate’s budget chief. “The purpose of this legislation is simply to have the owner of the Pilgrim, Entergy Nuclear Generation Company, compensate the town of Plymouth for these additional public safety costs.”

"Ultimately Plymouth has become a repository for spent fuel rods so to ask for compensation to address the public safety concerns is not unreasonable." deMacedo said. "This legislation is a commonsense approach to dealing with the challenges presented by having a nuclear power plant in your community."

"As the host community to a nuclear power plant, the Town of Plymouth expends significant resources to address public safety and emergency planning concerns and issues," testified Representative O'Brien at the hearing before the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy yesterday. "Of particular concern is the stockpiling of spent fuel rods. Therefore the legislative delegation filed this bill because we believe the Town of Plymouth should receive appropriate remuneration for the increased costs associated with properly protecting the residents of the Town."

The assessment would be a minimum charge of $2 million annually, and is calculated on the tonnage of spent fuel rods stored at the Power Station. The assessment would be paid on a quarterly basis for the duration of the rods’ storage.