NEW HOLTEC WHISTLE BLOWER LETTER CITES AIRBORNE CONTAMINATION

For a third time within a year, Cape Downwinders, a member group of Save Our Bay MA coalition, received another anonymous whistleblower letter from what appears to be a Holtec-Pilgrim employee with specific knowledge of worker and public safety concerns. New allegations include worker exposure to airborne radiological contamination due to Holtec's forced evaporation of the radioactive industrial wastewater and lack of detection and monitoring equipment resulting in radiation exposure to the workers. It is reported one worker is so exposed that radiation detectors are set off and he can no longer perform work inside the building. Holtec diverts responsibility and threatens "discharge" to anyone "being reviewed by either auditors or regulators." This is a chilling example of Holtec's hold on workers, and public health and safety issues being covered up.

READ FULL LETTER HERE>>>

Bay

FACTS IN THE LETTER

Plant personnel working on the Refuel Floor who were exposed to the airborne contamination resulting from the forced evaporation water "disposal" process, have repeatedly asked the HOLTEC Radiation Protection (RP) Manager and Supervisor how much internal radiation exposure they are receiving.
Radiation Protection(RP) Technicians assigned to the Refuel Floor have stated that the RP Technical Staff that are responsible for safety planning work and determining the radiation exposure of Holtec workers had their positions eliminated due to "cost-cutting efforts".
RP Technicians stated that no one in the RP Department knows how to determine airborne radioactivity levels and the resultant exposure to workers, nor do they have the experience necessary to devise work plans fo mitigating the radiation exposures received by workers.
RP Technicians stated that they do not even possess the detection and measurement equipment necessary to determine airborne radioactivity levels on the Refuel Floor.
Work controls intended to minimize worker radiation exposure were revised by the HOLTEC RP Supervisor.
RP Technician was exposed to airborne radioactive contamination and received a burden of radioactive material in his body.
An "investigation" of the cause of the exposure incident was conducted by the HOLTEC RP Supervisor.
This HOLTEC RP Supervisor was the person who relaxed the work controls specified in the original draft of the work plan.
The Contractor RP Planners eventually resigned under duress.

"The implication is that anyone involved with, or who has detailed knowledge of the incident may be "discharged" prior to the incident being reviewed by either auditors or regulators. This would leave HOLTEC RP Management to dictate the narrative of the exposure event."

The letter continues, "This post-event 'tactic' was successfully employed to deflect, reassign, or otherwise "disguise' the cause or blame for a litany of other radiological and non-radiological safety events dating back to the time HOLTEC acquired Pilgrim Station.

Electrical Safety Events such as when the Refuel Bridge severed its own 480V power cable, then tore the same cable out of its power box several weeks later, almost electrocuting several workers.
Rigging Events such as lifting a rig and almost knocking the Refuel Floor 'Sky Box' office off its pedestal and into the Dryer-Separator Pit, and when the Refuel Floor Overhead Crane almost knocked a worker off the top of a cask.
The Thermex Fire Event, which was initially reported to the USNRC and Plymouth Fire Department as a 'heat event' and subsequently reclassified as a 'fire' after an investigation by the USNRC.

All these events were captured on video or photographs."

In addition, the letter is postmarked May 14, 2024 and was not picked up at the Cape Downwinders mailbox until June 6. The MA Department of Public Health also received a copy. MassDPH is a member of the Nuclear Decommissioning Citizens Advisory Panel which deals with all decommissioning issues and reports to the public at the bimonthly meetings at Plymouth Town Hall. This letter and its contents were not shared at the May 20 NDCAP meeting. It was subsequently learned that the letter content was presented to the full state Interagency Working Group but not reported in their May 20 report to the NDCAP. We wonder why the state did not share this vital information with the public.

Previous letters:

August 2023 letter>>>

January 4, 2024 letter>>>

Independent Investigation? No Meeting with MassDEP for the public

WE ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE COLLATERAL DAMAGE TO HOLTEC'S PROFIT!

Cape Downwinders has requested a meeting with the MassDEP Commissioner Bonnie Heiple for months with no response. Given the previous two anonymous letters including serious allegations against Holtec, the patten of unresolved worker and public health concerns continues. We have requested an independent investigation with no response. Subsequently, for months, we requested the NDCAP to consider advising the governor to initiate an independent investigation. That request was finally addressed at the March meeting, was tabled, and died with no action at all. Now with additional allegations, will the state step up and do their job to protect the workers, public, and environment? This whistleblower deserves to be heard. How many more warnings do we need to recognize Holtec is out for profit, not public or worker health and safety?

Letter to MassDEP request for investigation here >>> sent January, February, and March, 2024.

Is this going on at Pilgrim-Holtec, too?

Holtec-Indian Point, NY requires workers to sign non-disclosure of safety concerns

Thomas C. Zambito, lohud

Indian Point’s owners had workers sign agreements saying they would not discuss safety concerns with outsiders after they stopped working at the shuttered nuclear power plant, an investigation by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has found.

The NRC last week cited Holtec International, the plant’s New Jersey-based owners, for including language in the severance agreements of employees who left the company in 2022 and 2023 that would restrict or discourage them from testifying as a witness in a proceeding that could damage Holtec.

Additionally, the NRC said, Holtec required the employees to tell Holtec if they received “subpoenas, correspondence, telephone calls, requests for information, inquiries or other contacts” from government agencies or other third parties.