Blog Post
Monitoring nuclear safety in pandemic times
- By Natalie Hildt Treat
- •
- 29 Apr, 2020
An update from the home office
Dear C-10 friends,
How are you holding up? We've been self-isolating since mid-March. It's hard, and we miss you.
Our Board of Directors and Advisory Board have been meeting via Zoom. I've hardly been to the office in weeks—thank goodness for the internet, and too many cartoons for my five-year-old, Julia. Like so many working parents, my husband Tom and I are juggling, and fitting work in however we can.
Mike, our monitoring network administrator, has been working from home and going into the office at night—after he puts his kids to bed. He can't get out to repair a couple stations that are down, because of social-distancing restrictions. But we're still keeping tabs on ambient radiation levels in our communities, 24/7.
I've been busy researching and writing about what is going on at Seabrook Station in light of the pandemic, which is especially sensitive now, considering the month-long refueling and maintenance outage that began April 1. Check our our In the news page for extensive local and national media coverage.
We've been communicating with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)'s resident inspector at the plant, as well as government officials at the local, state and federal levels and attempting to get answers from plant owner NextEra Energy. (Well, we tried.)
When I spoke to the Senior Resident Inspector Paul Cataldo in mid-April, he answered a lot of questions about how NextEra is operating in this time of pandemic, and how it has impacted the plant's Spring Outage.
Based on what I've learned from the NRC, I am confident that NextEra is following best-practices to reduce the spread of COVID-19. I also have a better understanding of how the pandemic has impacted work at the plant, and what projects are getting deferred. While hearing some specifics from the resident inspector was reassuring, we're still a bit uneasy about what we don't know, and which inspections really shouldn't wait. Particularly in light of the serious and incurable problem with Seabrook's degrading concrete.
That's why C-10 reached out to Massachusetts Senator Edward J. Markey, a long-time nuclear safety advocate. On April 20, Senator Markey, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Congressman Seth Moulton submitted a letter to NextEra asking for more information about the plant's pandemic plan and how they are communicating with local officials to stop the spread of coronavirus. They sent another letter asking NRC to provide answers on the regulatory exemptions that NextEra has been granted for work-hour limits and delayed inspections, as well as the NRC's inspection process during social-distancing and a time of remote work.
Aside from carrying out our mission for the health and safety of Seabrook's neighbors, we've been planning for how we can keep our organization financially healthy. C-10 relies on a mix of state funding, member contributions, business sponsorships and foundation grants—all of which are uncertain, given the economic situation we're facing.
I am very thankful that we were able to secure a payroll protection loan under the CARES Act, with assistance from the Institution for Savings. That has provided a bit of breathing room, at least until the end of the Massachusetts fiscal year on June 30. The monitoring network relies on funding from the Department of Public Health, and as we know, the state is facing steep declines in revenue.
We are grateful to State Representative James Kelcourse and Senator Diana DiZoglio for their belief in C-10's importance in helping to keep their constituents safe and informed. We are hopeful that they will be able to convey the value of real-time radiological monitoring to their colleagues in the Massachusetts legislature when it comes time to take up the fiscal year 2021 budget—whenever that happens.
On behalf of all of us at C-10, thank you for standing by us! Wishing you and yours good health and peace during this incredibly difficult time.
Sincerely,
Natalie Hildt Treat
Executive Director
C-10 Research & Education Foundation
PS: If you haven't yet made a gift this spring, we'd be so grateful for your support. It's easy to give online, and even better if you can make your gift recurring.
How are you holding up? We've been self-isolating since mid-March. It's hard, and we miss you.
Our Board of Directors and Advisory Board have been meeting via Zoom. I've hardly been to the office in weeks—thank goodness for the internet, and too many cartoons for my five-year-old, Julia. Like so many working parents, my husband Tom and I are juggling, and fitting work in however we can.
Mike, our monitoring network administrator, has been working from home and going into the office at night—after he puts his kids to bed. He can't get out to repair a couple stations that are down, because of social-distancing restrictions. But we're still keeping tabs on ambient radiation levels in our communities, 24/7.
I've been busy researching and writing about what is going on at Seabrook Station in light of the pandemic, which is especially sensitive now, considering the month-long refueling and maintenance outage that began April 1. Check our our In the news page for extensive local and national media coverage.
We've been communicating with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)'s resident inspector at the plant, as well as government officials at the local, state and federal levels and attempting to get answers from plant owner NextEra Energy. (Well, we tried.)
When I spoke to the Senior Resident Inspector Paul Cataldo in mid-April, he answered a lot of questions about how NextEra is operating in this time of pandemic, and how it has impacted the plant's Spring Outage.
Based on what I've learned from the NRC, I am confident that NextEra is following best-practices to reduce the spread of COVID-19. I also have a better understanding of how the pandemic has impacted work at the plant, and what projects are getting deferred. While hearing some specifics from the resident inspector was reassuring, we're still a bit uneasy about what we don't know, and which inspections really shouldn't wait. Particularly in light of the serious and incurable problem with Seabrook's degrading concrete.
That's why C-10 reached out to Massachusetts Senator Edward J. Markey, a long-time nuclear safety advocate. On April 20, Senator Markey, Senator Elizabeth Warren and Congressman Seth Moulton submitted a letter to NextEra asking for more information about the plant's pandemic plan and how they are communicating with local officials to stop the spread of coronavirus. They sent another letter asking NRC to provide answers on the regulatory exemptions that NextEra has been granted for work-hour limits and delayed inspections, as well as the NRC's inspection process during social-distancing and a time of remote work.
Aside from carrying out our mission for the health and safety of Seabrook's neighbors, we've been planning for how we can keep our organization financially healthy. C-10 relies on a mix of state funding, member contributions, business sponsorships and foundation grants—all of which are uncertain, given the economic situation we're facing.
I am very thankful that we were able to secure a payroll protection loan under the CARES Act, with assistance from the Institution for Savings. That has provided a bit of breathing room, at least until the end of the Massachusetts fiscal year on June 30. The monitoring network relies on funding from the Department of Public Health, and as we know, the state is facing steep declines in revenue.
We are grateful to State Representative James Kelcourse and Senator Diana DiZoglio for their belief in C-10's importance in helping to keep their constituents safe and informed. We are hopeful that they will be able to convey the value of real-time radiological monitoring to their colleagues in the Massachusetts legislature when it comes time to take up the fiscal year 2021 budget—whenever that happens.
On behalf of all of us at C-10, thank you for standing by us! Wishing you and yours good health and peace during this incredibly difficult time.
Sincerely,
Natalie Hildt Treat
Executive Director
C-10 Research & Education Foundation
PS: If you haven't yet made a gift this spring, we'd be so grateful for your support. It's easy to give online, and even better if you can make your gift recurring.
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Tritium is a radioactive byproduct of nuclear fission, found in abundance in nuclear wastewater. The Cape Cod community wants to be safe from it, corporate industry and regulators want to dump into the air and water and forget it ever existed.
C-10 does not agree with the NRC's assertion that "everything is fine, nothing to see here" when it comes to Seabrook Station repeatedly failing inspections.
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