CapeCodToday Blog Chowder

Guess who built the Pilgrim Nuclear Plant 20 miles away from Cape Cod? The same company that built the Big Dig, Bechtel! I would worry more about this antique nuclear plant across the bay with over 900 tons of high level waste than the Big Dig tunnels.

I sort of agree. Figure out the waste problem along with better security and go from there. To relicense these old plants is asking for trouble. Build the new plants a couple hundred miles from populations with the new technology and we might be OK. Plants like Pilgrim and Indian Point should be shut down. On the HBO Channel there is a special on the Indian Point Plant. Check it out.

We have been using photovoltaic cells for about 15 years on a house we own off the grid. We've had 2 windmills over the years but found that the sun works just fine for the summer months when the house is in use. We store the electricity with batteries for use when the sun doesn't shine. I wish that someone would develop new battery technology that would make it feasable for every municipal, private and business building to install photovoltaics. New battery technology would also get the solar powered car industry going as that is where most fuel is used. I also think that the government should give incentives or no interest loans for installing solar water heaters. The last time we were in Florida we saw just one solar panel the entire time we were there.

What happens when George takes on Iran?

If you want a couple local links about the nuclear plant across the bay check out .... www.plymouthmass.org There is another one.. www.pilgrimwatch.org There are links to out elected officials to email them and tell them how you feel.

How long have we been burning coal in the world and we still haven't figured out how to burn it clean. Either that or we don't want to spend the money to clean the plants up. Now they think they can handle high-level waste and keep it safe for hundreds of years. We are going to leave it for our kids to deal with in the future when terrorists will be much more sophisticated and innovative.

The NRC just came to town for comments from the people around the plant. A small group of us had met previously with the NRC group. They were very nice of coarse and actually agreed with me when I said that a lot of new information is around now post 911. They said we should fight to change the rules for relicensing these old, tired, high-level waste filled plants.

The town of Plymouth is about to hire a company to try and get Entergy to pay their fair share of property taxes. Our selectmen are just worried about the dollars and not the fact that we have turned the entire South Shore into a high level nuclear waste dump. It will cost Plymouth 1.7 million dollars to negotiate with this "good neighbor" as they like to say. I think that we should have a feasability study done to see if it would actually cost us more to keep this waste dump online for 20 more years. If there was ever a problem at Pilgrim I can't imagine what it would be like around Plymouth, never mind the Cape. You are trapped like a rat down there.

Who would want this nuclear waste in their State? What is the price to have the high-level nuclear waste dump for the entire country in their back yard? Even if Yucca opens,Pilgrim is way down on the list of nuclear plants that would be able to unload their present stash of it. The high-level nuclear waste will stay on the South Shore. 600 more tons for made in the next 20 years added to the 900 we now have will stay for our lifetimes right where it is. Nobody else wants it and politics and common sense won't move it out. Common sense says find out what to do with the most dangerous long lived nuclear crap mankind has ever made before you make more. Especially after 911 and the response we saw to the hurricane down south.

That's just it. Chernobyl was a fairly new plant with little inventory of spent fuel. Pilgrim has 900 tons of this high level waste sitting in the most vulnerable spent fuel pool in the business, 40 feet in the air facing the wide open ocean.

This just came to me from CW Senator John McCain joins the fight!
Yesterday it was reported in Energy and Environment Daily that Senator John McCain (R-AZ) is opposed to the anti-Cape Wind provision in the Coast Guard Reauthorization Act. Senator McCain was quoted saying, "I think it [the anti-Cape Wind provision] is clearly a violation of the way we do business around here and I would oppose it as strongly as I can."

Absolutely Jack and if we start building wind farms these older plants like Pilgrim can be replaced with smaller much more efficient plants that can be designed around the wind. I have faith in the engineers of the future. I think that hybrid systems using sun and wind will be built for neighborhoods in the future. If Bush had half a brain he would be giving huge incentives for people to put solar water heaters on their buildings right now. Especially down south. I was down in Florida foor a week and saw only 2 solar water heaters on houses. Too simple even for simple GW.

Yesterdays winds would have made up for it

Sorry still reading. Suppertime.

I have a good friend that was loving what was happening with oil prices and the world in general these days. I couldn't figure out how he could be so blind until he told me how well he was doing online trading stocks with companies like Halliberton and ExxonMobile... The American way.

I guess it boils down to life in the 21st century. Did you take your horse to the general store today? I wish that I could still do that. Did you use a digital camera or an old box for your photos. I swordfished on a schooner that my friend found on a beach in Newfoundland back in 1972. When the engine died or the reductiuon gear would go we would put up the sail and harpoon fish. When the wind blows we should use it. Technology will get better to fill in the void when the wind doesn't blow or the sun doesn't shine to heat our water.

Magical Does Maverick swim out to the Shoals every day or does he take his boat? Isn't a boat man's creation?

Think of windmills as Gods creations. God would probably be pretty proud of us to use his free,clean energy after all these years..

Not sure how many tourists go visit wind farms but I know a lot of the people I know go out of there way to visit them. They probably would visit nukes too...if they could get within a half a mile of them. There are a lot of people in the world that like the wind farms so if they build them, they will come.

I just left a track meet at Plymouth South High. I have been going to track meets and baseball games with my kids for years. It was so windy again up there that everyone was leaving the field. Our town was supposed to put a windmill up there a few years ago to help run the schools and teach the kids at the vocational school about alternative energy. Across Route 3 to the East there is a development called "Pine Hills". Plymouth will never get a windmill on the school grounds because the Pine Hills doesn't want it there. What a waste of wind up there today. While the boilers rumble in the basement of the school, sucking up Arabian oil, the wind is cruising right on by. Typical America these days. Look to the horizen for answers when they are right in front of you all the time.

You're too funny.

People will come to see the windmills. It will be another tourist attraction. Over here in Plymouth we have a nuclear plant with National Guard soldiers armed with submachine guns standing by the road. We have ocean access blocked all around the plant so terrorists won't bring their boats in too close. The nuclear plant or waste dump is a dark cloud over this region. The wind farm will be a positive thing in this negative world... The fish will even like living around the towers. Lighten up guys!

Who has died as a result of our business as usual approach to energy use after 911? We give millions to countries that hate us and want to kill us and we don't have the brains to change.

Nuclear power is much more attractive. Lets leave 1500 tons of high-level waste for somebody else to deal with later...hundreds of years later. God help us if we disturb the birds or scrape up the bottom of the ocean. Let's build a nuclear plant or two in Rhode Island!

I think we should do what green energy says with not only gas but nuclear plants. Find a place in the desert to build the nuclear plants away from populated areas. This way they could store their own high-level waste at the site.Housing for those that work at the plants could be built nearby. Allowing these old tired waste filled plants to continue to run in populated areas is asking for trouble.

Any serious accident or terrorist strike would do the same to all of Cape Cod. I would think they would figure out what to do with the high-level nuclear waste before they let tmem have the new license but the NRC is watching out for the industry that is their "bread and butter". Without nuclear plants they have no job. Just the other day the NRC gave Pilgrim good marks even though they admit that they don't take evacuation and terrorism into account.

I just came across this article about the Oyster Creek Plant. Oyster Creek is a little older than Pilgrim. Pilgrim has one of the most vulnerable spent fuel pools there are in the industry.http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0419/p03s03-ussc.html

Solon
Great article. You could replace the LNG tanker in your comments with the Pilgrim Plant with not only 20,000 deaths but many more than that would follow. Add to that the fact that you can't return to rebuild for hundreds of years. If Pilgrim goes Boston could have some serious problems too. Lots for us to think about here on the South Shore.

Anon Once the anti-wind crowd kills the CW Project I hope they put as much energy into stopping the Pilgrim Nuclear Waste Dump from obtaining another 20 year license to operate. As I've said before, We are all in the same boat if something happens at Pilgrim. A recent article says that up to 90,000 people died from the Chernobyl accident, never mind the land that can't be used and the birth defects. Pilgrim has a much larger inventory of high-level nuclear waste than Chernobyl had.I wouldn't want to be on the Cape the day Pilgrim goes haywire.

I thought that I had read awhile back about a boat yard owner on the Cape that was fighting CW. Then I read that the boat yard had a serious fire that leached thousands of gallons of toxics into the river or bay where they were located. Think of the chemicals, bottom paints, thinners etc that went into the bay. These hugh boats are cruising around Nantucket Sound spewing crap into the water all summer. Why no opposition to this?

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."

Well little fish how do the quotes you found change the meaning of mine?

In a few years our enemies will develop more sophisticated conventional weapons to use against us and like on 911 they will use our technology against us. Who needs a nuclear weapon when they can fly an aircraft or lob a rocket into the side of a spent fuel pool such as Pilgrims? The 900 tons of high-level nuclear waste will not only wipe out Nantucket Sound but everything around it. Another Einstein quote to think about…………"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

Einstein quote "The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker."

If you think that an LNG explosion would be bad how about a lear jet into the side of the Pilgrim plant. The people on the Cape wouldn't know whether to go east or west and it probably would be just as bad no matter which way they ran. Too bad the people "against the wind" don't spend their time coming up with a better plan than wind. I'm all for that. If they keep this up we will be at war with the world for oil and that ain't too far down the road.

We had windmills at our place for about 15 years. I saw one dead bird in all that time. A snowy owl would sit on the tail of the windmill while it spun and watch for prey in the late afternoon. It didn't bother him.

That nuclear forum you listened to was the League of Women Voters forum. They had Dave Garigan there who spoke about the security at Pilgrim. He said that he thought the plant was run well but as far as security went that was a whole different story. It's one thing for the person on the street to say how vulnerable the nuke is but when a man with his credentials says it's vulnerable than maybe it's time for people to pay attention. Entergy can have all the National Guard soldiers they can get around the edge of that place but they are useless if anyone decides to fly a jet into the side of that waste pool. The NRC is in Plymouth on March 8 at the Memorial Hall. Cape Cod has much to lose if there was ever a problem at Pilgrim. Years ago the Cape was instrumental in helping to stop Pilgrim 2 from being built. Plymouth sure could use some help fighting this new 20 year extention to their license to operate. I can't believe there isn't more press coverage on the Cape.

I would think that if Kennedy was interested in public safety that he would be putting a stop to Entergys request to relicense the Pilgrim Nuclear Waste Dump across the bay. Talk about public safety!! I guess he just can't see it from his estate.

Jim Gordan will be on the NECN Newsnight Show with Jim Braude tonight.

I realize that the nuclear plant itself wouldn't explode. I meant the initial explosion of a bomb or fuel laden jet or helicopter. The spent fuel pool is the "sweet spot" at hat nuclear plant. The walls are thin and the roof built something like your local Wal-Mart’s. There are a couple of National Guard soldiers standing around the main entrance. No ground to air missiles. Where do you think our other enemies have their long-range missiles aimed? They don’t need a nuclear weapon when we have 900 tons of waste sitting there next to the ocean. Check out a couple local websites.. www.plymouthmass.org and www.pilgrimwatch.org

Who knows... if they build this windfarm maybe that could be a new spawning ground for all the vanishing fish. Maybe they should limit the fishing on it for a few years to bring back some fish. Just a thought.

Solon, I totally agree but as horrible of a scenerio this may seem with the LNG, what do you think about the same type of bomb or aircraft being used against the Pilgrim Nuclear plant in Plymouth less than 20 miles away from the Cape? An attack on Pilgrim would make an LNG tanker explosion look like a firecracker! Never mind all that 900 tons of nasty high-level radiation left behind after the initial explosion. That would put us all out of here for at least our lifes. The gas is a localized problem but the nuclear is the whole ball of wax.

Today the wind is blowing all those vented nuclear gases from Pilgrim over towards the Cape. The nuclear plant is in Plymouth but those clean non-greenhouse nuclear gases are are a cancer maker for anyone that lives within 20 miles. If some type of accident or terrorist strike cracks that spent fuel pool you'll find out how clean that plant is. The 900 tons of leftover high level fuel is far from "renewable".

Back during the two world wars people at home did what they could to help the country win the war. They had to make alot of sacrifices. We should be thinking down these same lines. While our young kids are fighting we are here oblivious to what they are experiencing every day. Oil does have alot to do with this situation we are in and we should be at least trying to use less oil so we won't be giving our hard earned money to these terrorists so they can fund their terrorist activities.

Five towns around the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Plant will vote to see if they can get better evacuation plans in case of an emergency at the plant. Maybe this is something that should happen around Plymouth especially on Cape Cod. http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060127/NEWS/601270352

When I look out off Plymouth beach I almost always end up looking at the Pilgrim plants nuclear gas vent stack peaking over the pine hills. I always check to see which way the wind is blowing and I'm usually happy that the wind is blowing towards the Cape. The wind also blows Southwest which is fine with me. It doesn't blow Southeast that often which would bring it my way. Whatever gases the nucler plant vents goes off with the wind. I would be happy to look out on the ocean off of Plymouth Beach and see a tiny row of windmills in the distance. I will trade with you guys down there this wonderful, waste filled antique nuke for twice the amount of windmills they want off your beach. I guess it doesn't really matter as far as the Cape goes. Pilgrim is probably more of an evacuation nightmare to the Cape than Plymouth.

The Pilgrim Nuclear Waste Dump will file papers today to run the plant for 30 more years. This will add another 600 tons of high level waste to the 900 tons already there.

Green Energy If what you say is true and it seems to me it probably is, than it would work with batteries and an inverter. I have a system with photovoltaic cells, batteries, and an inverter. It gives me a great buffer on cloudy days and at night. My house is off the grid. If people on the grid could store off peak power on batteries, with an inverter it would make sense. The only problem is the batteries. Most are recycled so it wouldn't be a huge problem. This could be something that both sides of this Cape Wind issue could come together for. I have been reading these posts for a couple weeks now and I think I can say everyone is looking for the same end result. It's fun to mess with each other over these posts but we really should get it together and come up with a plan. I see what Maverick says because I have spent as much time as he has next to or on the ocean. I've seen alot of the same things he has. I've caught bluefin tuna on handlines, lobstered, swordfished, and just slept out there. Let's just cool all the hot air and get a plan.

Two more miners found dead. Another dirty way to make electricity and a good reason to find other ways.

Magical, I guess you are living in a dream world. There is no magic cure for our energy production problems. They all come with costs. Instead of spending your life fighting one of the cleaner alternatives why not push for the alternatives you think are better. Educate the kids about these things so maybe they will change the way it's done. If something doesn't happen soon...we are in trouble.

Maybe if all the government subsidies were figured in to our cost of electricity than ours would be more expensive than the Danish. Nuclear waste has to be babysat for thousands of years. Decommisioning plants isn't cheap either. Who knows how much the government spends on things like evacuation etc.? Not sure how people feel this information isn't relavent to the wind farm. We need electricity and we have choices. All of them have drawbacks. Some are lethal for decades and some are eyesores. Pick your poison I guess.

We don't have an evacuation plan that would work in Plymouth. Unlike you on the Cape we have quite a few roads out of here. They tell us now to shelter in place. Good luck out on the Cape. You'll have to keep an eye on the wind direction. As far as this wind farm somehow getting rid of nuclear waste who came up with that one? Certainly not me.

Nuclear plants produce clean power? What is that waste pool full of? If it's so clean why doesn't anyone in the country want the byproduct of these plants? So we save the world by not producing green house gas while the south shore becomes a nuclear waste dump site. That's logical.

Maverick, I have lived next to the ocean all my life. I have been out on swordfish trips for 3 weeks at a time. I've lobstered for a good 20 years. I went fishing when the Germans and Russians were right off shore with those huge factory ships in the early seventies. I know how special that ocean is out there. It's another world. I do think that we have to do something to say to the world and our own people that we can provide ourselves with the energy we need. What are we to do? I still think that building windmills 5 miles offshore that will provide 75% of the energy the Cape needs is a positive thing for the country. I live in a town that has 900 tons of high level nuclear waste sitting right out in the open. Would you rather have 900 tons of radiation plus the 30 tons a year the nuclear plant makes or try a wind farm out there? It has a lifetime of 25-30 years. Unlike nukes you can just take the turbines down and recycle them. I respect you for what you do. When you work on the ocean it gives you something nobody can have. You respect everything. I'll never forget the experienc

Great Gadfly, Maybe they should have thought about what to do with the waste before they made it. We are all stuck with it now. The newest nuclear plants have a different waste storage system than Pilgrim has. Newer plants high level waste is at ground level not 40 feet up. If they lose water at least it stays there and doesn't drain down. Pilgrim has so much waste stored so close together that it needs circulating water to keep it cool. Pilgrim still has all the waste up in that building outside the containment vessel. You tell me. You are on the Cape and just as much or more at risk if some nut decides to fly into it.

Why not just build small windmills at the edge of the ocean to protect that waste pool on the east side. Guy the towers together to at least break a jet up before it hits. Also where do all our enemies with long range missles have them aimed?? Our enemies don't need nuclear missles when they have vulnerable nuclear plants full to the brim with high level waste. Terrorists will only get smarter as time goes on. A lear jet could set that place off. Entergy has done nothing to defend from the air.

What needs to be done is to shut that nuclear waste dump down. Take the fuel rods out of the vulnerable spent fuel pool and put them in dry cask storage. They could then build a brand new state of the art combined cycle gas plant where Pilgrim 2 was supposed to be built. Forget about evacuation...you would be better off sheltering in place.

I don't like that video. Brings me back to that couple months after 911 when I didn't know what was going to happen next. I couldn't imagine why the terrorists hadn't just flown into Indian Point or Pilgrim instead. It would have been much more deadly and long lasting. That's a powerful video.

Venting, Not sure where you get your info. The roof of the spent fuel pool is sort of like the local Walmart stores roof. Very vulnerable. Especially in this terrorist climate with 3 times the fuel rods the pool was designed for to begin with. This isn't new info. The terrorists knew this on 911.They hought of hitting a nuclear plant several times. Maybe the jet that got taken down was headed to Indian Point. Nuclear plants were supposed to keep taking high level waste out of the spent fuel pools as they made it. That was the plan but the plan changed when NOBODY in the country wanted the high level nuclear waste. At any price. Now it's in Plymouth for many years to come. Hopefully it will be put in dry cask storage soon but they aren't moving too fast.

Plymouth has held a few forums about the relicensing of the Pilgrim Nuclear Waste Dump. Some great comments against the license came from respected people not just from Plymouth but from towns for miles around the dump site. One speaker that used to work for the FAA and handled nuclear weapons in he military spoke of the danger from the air. Pilgrim has no defense against an attack like the one on 911. In fact a small lear jet or helicopter could cause a loss of water in the spent fuel pool that could make an area 500 miles around Plymouth uninhabitable for hundreds of years. That's alot of potential. So much potential that your insurance will not cover an accident at Pilgrim.

The Pilgrim plant now stores over three times the high level nuclear waste that it was designed for back in the 60's. It will be stored in Plymouth for our life times if not forever. If they get this license to run 20 more years they will add another 600 tons to the 900 tons now there. Also after 2008 all the other so called low level waste will have to be stored on site because they will no longer have a place to send it. The nuclear plant vents nuclear crap daily and on a west or northwest wind it's coming right at the Cape. When a second nuclear plant was proposed in the late 70s the Cape was up in arms and helped kill that project. This license renewal process goes fast and now is the time to let them hear from you. If there were a nuclear release because of a terrorist strike, human error or equipment malfunction..THERE WOULD BE NO ESCAPE FROM THE CAPE!

We should get their oil cheapand put a heavy tax on it that would go to an alternative energy fund. It could go towards photovoltaics, wind, solar or conservation. It could be used for low interest loans for people that want to convert their houses over.

I had two windmills in the 80s that ran our house. For the 10 or 12 years they were running I found 1 dead bird. The snowy owls used to sit on top of the generator at dusk and look for meals along the shore. I think they liked the vibration. I figured that the bird that died wasn't too bright and ran into the blades. I thought back then it was survival of the fittest. Those machines spun like crazy with their 6 foot blades. These new windmills spin so slow that any bird that hit them couldn't be all that bright. I've read about people watching the birds work the blades looking for bugs. They actually fly thru the blades, they spin so slow. I just came in from Boston and I see absolutely nothing wrong with that windmill on the expressway. Makes me proud that someone is actually doing something...

I think I'd rather watch a few windmills slowly spinning than that smoke slowly drift across the sky.

Here are a couple sites with information on the Pilgrim Nuclear power plant in Plymouth; Plymouth Mass and Pilgrim Watch .

That's the attitude!

Check this link out for the information on releases from Pilgrim. http://www.pilgrimwatch.org/emissions.html

Wow what a lot of hot air here. You guys are fighting over windmills that have no smokestacks, toxic byproduct or huge payments to foreign countries that want to kill us. These machines are made by Americans. They last 25 or 30 years and if you didn't like the experience you can take them down. Look across the bay at Plymouth that now has 900 tons of the most toxic long lasting nuclear waste known to man. Entergy is applying for a license to make another 600 tons of this waste. Cape Cod is the last place I would want to be if the ---- hits the fan over there at Pilgrim. Just as much a problem on the Cape as it is in Plymouth. Lighten up.. they could be proposing a nuclear plant in Sandwich.

Every ounce of high level nuclear waste made at Pilgrim is in the spent fuel pool outside the hardened containment vessel. The pool was to be temporary storage and after a short period of time the some of the fuel would cool enough to be trucked to a national waste dump. Now Yucca isn't going to accept this waste and even if it did it would be full before our waste got shipped. Pilgrims pool is the most vulnerable of all spent fuel pools in the country. No protection at all from the air.

I would think that people would see that we are going to run out of fossil fuels not too long from now. We have to smarten up and change direction a bit. The people that sell oil to us hate us. I say it's worth putting up windmills and other types of generation to keep money in our own pockets. Twenty years from now take the machines down if they don't work.By then better and smaller wind machines and things like tidal, wave, photovoltaic will have advanced. Energy efficient products will also save having to produce the power in the first place. Peoples houses will have the photovoltaic cells and solar hot water to supply energy where it's used.

People opposed to nuclear power usually have a nuclear plant in their town. Before you make this waste figure out what to do with it. I think it's selfish to pass the problem on. I guess the same old things like conservation and alternatives would help. Teach the kids at school a little about energy use.Tufts has an incredible program teaching the kids and doing alterations on their campus to save energy. Put a solar panel on every roof for a start.We built our house to be efficient and it sure paid off.Sometimes people look to hard for basic answers.

Brian, Come to Plymouth across the bay and take this 900 tons of high level nuclear waste back to your town. Nobody else wants it but it sounds like you have no problem with it. The Pilgrim Nuclear waste dump will be making 30 tons a year of this cheap stuff for the next 20 years so send your friends over for their share too.God help us if we have to look at windmills. I would much rather have "clean, cheap" nuclear power.

I say build the windmills. They will help get us thru the next 20 or 30 years without having the problems we now have with oil from countries that hate us and nuclear plants that are terrorist targets and nuclear waste dumps. If we find that wind doesn't work just take them down in 20 years, by then hopefully their will be better energy alternatives. Why not harness some of the energy in the Cape Cod canal???

The terrorists have known for years which plants have the old style fuel pools.It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. They can go on the internet and get the GPS coordinates and aerial photos any day of the week.

The high level waste will be buried next to the plant... where else? They have no other place to put it and are running out of room. Yucca Mountain is not going to happen. The waste is racked too close in the spent fuel pool and would ignite. Tell us where they monitor the vent stack real time....I'd love to see the info.

Pilgrim has one of the worst waste storage setups and would never be allowed to be built today. It is 40 feet up in a building next to the hardened containment building. Thick walls thin roof. The fuel pools in the newer plants were built at ground level so the water would at least stay around the waste if it sropped pumping. Check out www.plymouthmass.org or www.Pilgrimwatch.org for more info.