BOSTON – Massachusetts appealed a Nuclear Regulatory Commission decision to relicense Entergy Corp.’s Pilgrim nuclear power station 40 miles south of Boston, asking to have the extension canceled pending further review, Bloomberg News reported last week.

The state seeks to require the commission to take steps to ensure the safety of the plant and the residents of the surrounding communities, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said in a statement.

Separately, 22 groups and two individuals said they petitioned the NRC to suspend final licensing decisions for almost three dozen nuclear reactors, after an appeals court ruled that the agency failed to fully evaluate risks associated with its regulations on the storage of spent nuclear fuel and must draft new ones. The NRC shouldn’t complete its licensing decisions until satisfying its environmental-review obligations, they said in a statement.

The NRC in May granted a 20-year license extension to the Pilgrim plant, located in Plymouth. In its filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Boston, the state seeks to vacate the license renewal and require the commission to prepare an environmental-impact statement. The state said it wanted the NRC before granting the renewal to re-evaluate the environmental impacts and risks of operating the plant in the wake of Fukushima.

The state’s filing couldn’t be confirmed in court records. A copy was provided by the state.

Michael Burns, a spokesman for New Orleans-based Entergy, said in an e-mailed statement that the NRC conducted “extremely thorough” safety and environmental reviews. •