Rep. Ed Markey of Massachusetts warned federal regulators yesterday that failing to consider the fate of two threatened fish before renewing a license for an aging nuclear plant in his state would violate the Endangered Species Act.

Markey, the ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has not yet considered the fate of the Atlantic sturgeon and river herring -- two threatened fish -- when studying a license renewal application for Entergy Corp.'s Pilgrim nuclear power station in Plymouth, Mass.

A 2007 report the NRC generated, which listed threatened or endangered species possibly affected by renewing the license, didn't cover the sturgeon or herring, Markey said. And although the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is required to either concur or respond to the NRC's finding, the agency has failed to do either, he added.

Markey urged regulators in letters yesterday not to renew Entergy's current license, which is scheduled to expire June 8, without a complete biological review.

Entergy is asking the NRC for a 20-year renewal to operate the plant through 2032.

"The NRC should not continue with the relicensing process for Pilgrim until the law is fully complied with," Markey said in letters to the agencies. "Since the NRC's biological assessment does not consider these two species of fish, it is incomplete and must be revised. The National Marine Fisheries Service must also weigh in before Pilgrim can be re-licensed."

Markey asked the agencies to explain how they'll conduct the biological assessments before the license is renewed, and how such determinations are made for other nuclear plants seeking license renewals.

Entergy's efforts to renew its license to operate the Pilgrim plant have also faced recent opposition from environmental groups who say the company has failed to incorporate lessons from the Japanese nuclear crisis that erupted last year.

Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was crippled last March by an earthquake and tsunami that triggered explosions and radioactive leaks. An internal NRC study pulled lessons from the disaster, but the agency is still finalizing rules and orders for nuclear plant safety upgrades.

Mary Lampert, the director of the anti-nuclear group Pilgrim Watch, said that the lessons of Fukushima must be addressed within the relicensing process under the National Environmental Policy Act and that the Massachusetts plant is similar in design to the Fukushima reactors.

Although NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko sympathized with Lampert's request for a hearing to consider Fukushima-related lessons in the relicensing process, the majority of the five-member commission denied her request (Greenwire, Feb. 23).

Click here for Markey's letter.