Contact your Senators and Conference Comitee members to keep Section 55 from repeal! WITH LINKS!
This update is edited to include links!
We won in the Senate, but . . .
On July 1, 2026, Section 55 of Chapter 503 had a victory in the Massachusetts Senate! By a 32 to 8 vote, the Senate rejected the House bill, passed its own version of Governor Healy’s Energy Affordability, Independence, and Innovation Act, and did not include the repeal of Chapter 503, Section 55 in the Senate version. Chapter 503, Section 55 was voted into law in 1982 pursuant to a citizen initiative by two-thirds of the voters. It requires that any new nuclear construction be approved by the voters in a statewide referendum, and that the legislature certify by resolution that viable health, safety, decommissioning and permanent waste disposal are fully secured, and that energy optimization requirements have been met.
By just looking at the nuclear waste casks sitting on a hill at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station, we know there is no plan in place for nuclear waste disposal. Pilgrim was shut down in 2019 and is now owned by Holtec International, who is “decommissioning” the plant, with apparent hopes of installing its small modular reactor (SMR) technology. Holtec was recently prohibited by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection from releasing radioactive wastewater into Cape Cod Bay, and the corporation now has plans to evaporate the wastewater into the air instead.
Conference Committee
The Senate and House bills have now advanced to a conference committee composed of six members. The conference committee will write a new bill, which will then be voted on by both chambers. Governor Healy is pressuring the committee to repeal Section 55. Please immediately contact conference committee members and your Senator, and urge them to oppose the repeal of C. 503, Section 55. It is critical that we keep the anti-repeal momentum going! It is a high-stakes time to influence the conference committee work and urge legislators to only approve a bill that excludes the repeal.
Sample Language
If you are looking for language to include in your communications with legislators, take a look at the language created by our friends at Greater Boston Physicians for Social Responsibility.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg quoting
"Everyone Has A Teaspoon," from How to Cure a Fanatic by Amos Oz
“Bring a bucket of water and throw it on the fire, and if you don’t have a bucket, bring a glass, and if you don’t have a glass, use a teaspoon, everyone has a teaspoon. And yes, I know a teaspoon is little and the fire is huge but there are millions of us and each one of us has a teaspoon . . . ”
Virginia Lee, Attorney
Lila Westervelt, Student, Lincoln Sudbury Regional High School