Senate Approves $1.7 Million for Air, Water Testing Aroung Pilgrim Nuke Plant

The Department of Public Health received $1.7 million in the state Senate's 2013 budget to conduct regular air and water testing around Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station as a way to ensure the health and safety of Plymouth residents, according to a press release from Senate President Therese Murray's office.

The budget will must be finalized by a conference committee with the House of Representatives before going to Gov. Deval Patrick for approval.

The budget is part of the Senate's $32.45 billion budget for the 2013 fiscal year.

Other nuclear monitoring programs, including the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, are protected from cuts in the Senate budget, according to the release.

"It continues to be our top priority to ensure that we are over prepared for any possible problems that we may encounter with nuclear facilities in the Commonwealth," Murray said. "This funding is critical to the Commonwealth and it helps to keep our communities safe and maintain peace of mind."

Tuesday, the NRC gave the final approval to for another 20 years. The plant first came online in 1972.

"Remarkable progress has been made by DPH over the past year on developing a system that will enable DPH and MEMA to effectively track and monitor in real time a potentially lethal radioactive plume as it leaves Pilgrim in case of a serious accident or attack," Jeff Berger, chairman of Plymouth's Nuclear Matters Committee, said. "This system is
designed to give state authorities precise, correct, detailed information on which to base life-or-death decisions on whether to order evacuations or tell people to shelter-in-place. Plans call for some new meteorological/radiological monitoring towers in this system to be installed by Fall 2012. We're delighted with the progress so far and look forward to full implementation of this critically important system going forward."