Pilgrim watchdog group rallies outside station

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Cape Downwinders, an organization dedicated to the closure of Pilgrim Station, held a rally Monday on Rocky Hill Road in Manomet near the entrance to the plant as NRC inspectors returned to the facility.

The plant is not making necessary repairs during the countdown to its closure, Cape Downwinder secretary Susan Carpenter told The Times in a telephone conversation. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has enabled Pilgrim to shirk its duties by granting it waivers, she said. The public’s guard should not be down now that decommissioning is on the horizon, she said, because the plant has never been more dangerous.

The NRC is supposed to protect the public and the environment, the group’s secretary, Elaine Dickinson, said. “Most of us feel they don’t do either,” she said. The group hoped to catch the attention of NRC inspectors expected to be onsite Monday, including Don Jackson, a high-ranking NRC official who Ms. Dickinson said was responsible for accidentally emailing her organization last year with frank information about the plant’s shortcomings.

As The Times reported earlier this year, Pilgrim is a concern for Islanders because Martha’s Vineyard is within range of fallout should an accident occur.