Junk Plant Seabrook

With concrete degrading in critical parts of Seabrook, environmental advocates urge to delay renewal of license

David L. Ryan/Globe Staff/File/2011
The Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant in Seabrook, N.H.
By David Abel Globe Staff February 12, 2019


NEWBURYPORT — Concerned about growing cracks in the concrete containment dome and in other critical parts of the sprawling complex at the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant, a group of activists here has been urging federal regulators to postpone a planned extension of the aging plant’s operating license.

With the help of lawmakers from Massachusetts and New Hampshire, they recently won a reprieve.

Officials at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission agreed last month to delay their renewal decision and meet with local residents on Wednesday in Hampton, N.H., to discuss whether the plant should be allowed to continue producing electricity 20 more years after its current license ends in 2030.

Now, the activists are planning to file an emergency petition with the government, seeking immediate action “to ensure that the NRC will uphold its duty to protect the public,” said Natalie Hildt Treat, executive director of the C-10 Research & Education Foundation, which for years has been monitoring radiation from the plant.

The petition, which the group plans to file this week, demands that regulators delay their decision on the license extension. “We think the NRC made a mistake when it concluded that [extending the license] would pose no significant hazard to public safety,” she said...