PLYMOUTH, Mass. — Seven years ago, the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station stopped generating electricity, but that doesn’t mean concerns about radiation exposure have gone away.
A new study is about to get underway to determine just how great the cancer risk is along the South Shore and Cape Cod.
The views along Priscilla Beach in Plymouth are beautiful, but residents believe there is something ugly in the air.
Plymouth resident Joanne Geary said, “So many people have had health issues, all kinds of cancers.”
Joanne Corrigan, another Plymouth resident, added, “My street, we’ve had testicular cancer on both ends of the street, one guy twice. We’ve had lung cancer, thyroid cancer and those are only the ones I know of.”
These residents are concerned about elevated levels of radiation associated with the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station even though the facility powered down in 2019.
“Yea, this is a big issue,” said Mary Lampert. “There are some people who felt when the reactor shut that, oh, thank heavens, that’s the end of the story and breathed a sigh of relief.”
Lampert lives with her husband James in Duxbury. Their home is about six miles from the plant across the bay.
They created Pilgrim Watch, a non-profit focused on raising safety issues associated with the old nuclear facility.
“All the spent fuel, all the fuel since 1972 that has operated the reactor, over 4,000 assemblies are now stored in what are call dry casks on site. If you drive down the road where the reactor is located, you see them,” said Lampert.
Professor Petros Koutrakis, Ph.D., of the Harvard Chan School of Public Health added, “Unfortunately, one problem with retired nuclear power plants is what to do with the waste, the nuclear waste.”
In December, he published a study of incidences of cancer near the Plymouth plant between 2000-2018.
“We estimated that over the period of 18 years, we had about an excess of 20,000 cancer incidences which is about 4% of the total cases in Massachusetts during this period, so again this is quite a large number for a small state like Massachusetts.”
This spring, Koutrakis will start a new project to monitor the health impacts of people living near the plant.
“What we will do, we measure particles inside these homes and also we will measure blood, biomarkers of exposure and effect. We expect to get about 30-50 people living near the plant and compare them to people who live away from the plant.”
Houses will be equipped with air filters to detect radioactivity.
“The radio nuclides we inhale or ingest go inside the body and they can cause the harm.”
Lampert has agreed to have her blood tested for this project.
But after years of living near the plant, and even mounting a radiation meter on her home, she feels confident of what the study will find.
“What we will see is what we already know, that living near
For Koutrakis, one lesson is already clear.
“I think there is no place that is free of risks, but I personally would not live near a nuclear power plant.”
Boston 25 New reached out to Holtec International, the company in charge of the decommissioning.
A spokesperson pointed us to this article written by two scientists who outlined their concerns with the methodology used by Professor Koutrakis.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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