By JULIE JETTE

PLYMOUTH - Some of the state’s largest environmental groups have opted not to file formal objections to the Pilgrim Nuclear power plant’s application for a license extension.

The Conservation Law Foundation and the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group - both said the process would be too expensive with too little likelihood of success.

Only two parties met last Friday’s deadline to file requests for a longer, more involved relicensing process - Attorney General Thomas Reilly and the local group Pilgrim Watch. Plant owner Entergy Corp. filed for the license extension in January.

Mary Lampert, a Duxbury resident who leads Pilgrim Watch, said she understands why other groups didn’t participate.

‘‘The probability of success was low, and looking at what their resources were...they decided to allocate those resources to more sure winners, plain and simple,’’ Lampert said.

Entergy, the New Orleans-based company that owns Pilgrim, is seeking to extend the plant’s license from its expiration date of 2012 to 2032. So far, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved license extensions for 42 plants; no plant has been denied an extension yet.

The public can request that the NRC lengthen the relicensing process by seeking a hearing. If the agency accepts the request for a hearing, the process would take about 30 months instead of about 22 months. So far, however, the NRC has granted only one hearing.

‘‘It’s objective fact that the (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) filings are an enormous endeavor to put together properly,’’ said Seth Kaplan, a senior attorney with the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation. ‘‘We remain convinced that there are profound concerns and problems around the continued operation of nuclear plants.’’

Evan Feinman, an advocate with MassPIRG, said his organization also decided formal participation in the relicensing process was too expensive.

‘‘We are strongly opposed to the relicensing (but) at this time it seemed like an extremely resource-intensive thing that we didn’t have the resources for,’’ Feinman said. ‘‘The frustrating thing about this whole process is (it’s) overly narrow.’’

The relicensing process assumes that the moving parts of plants are being inspected properly and that emergency preparedness plans are up to date. As part of relicensing, regulators instead focus on the environmental impact of running the plant beyond its planned closing date and the aging of the plant’s physical structure.

Pilgrim Watch is asking for a hearing and that the NRC require Pilgrim to improve a number of proposals in its application.

Among Pilgrim Watch’s requests are that the company institute a more rigorous program to test whether containers holding radioactive water are leaking into the ground. The group also wants a better analysis of what would happen if there was an accident involving the spent fuel rod pool. And it would like the NRC to reduce the amount of radiation the plant is allowed to emit.

Reilly is also asking the NRC to look at the possibility of a severe accident involving spent fuel storage. Spent fuel rods remain radioactive after they are no longer useful in fueling the plant.

In the past few days, the plant officials have made headlines for discovering that they cannot account for seven radiation monitors containing tiny amounts of radioactive material. They say they believe the material was probably shipped out safely with other low-level waste.

Julie Jette may be reached at jjette@ledger.com

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