Entergy Nuclear has been dealt setbacks over the last two weeks in its efforts to renew operating licenses at Indian Point Energy Center”™s two reactors, the first of which expires in 2013.
On Jan. 31, state lawmakers released their findings from a Jan. 12 hearing in New York City, concluding that Indian Point could be reasonably taken off the grid without having a major impact on the state”™s electrical grid.
The following day, the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission released a 98-page report detailing dozens of updates to the Buchanan plant”™s fire protection and detection systems that Entergy must address.
However, an NRC representative stressed that despite the rejections, the plant poses no immediate safety risk.
“After considering the compensatory measures, the NRC does not have an immediate safety concern,” said Michele G. Evans, director of operating reactor licensing in the NRC”™s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation.
The federal report was issued in response to a 2009 exemption request by Entergy, and concluded that most of the individual requests by Entergy to use operator manual actions in place of approved fire protection features do not meet the NRC”™s criteria and must be addressed. The operator manual actions described in the report include fire watches, or round-the-clock inspections of specific portions of the plant by trained professionals, Entergy spokesman Jerry Nappi said.
Nappi said that Entergy would respond to the report”™s findings within 30 days as required by the NRC.
“Within 30 days we will send back the NRC a plan that will address the issues they raised in that letter,” he said, adding that there are multiple levels of fire protection in place beyond the manual actions.
Entergy was, however, disappointed with the findings of a state Assembly hearing held last month in New York City, Nappi said.
Assemblymen Kevin Cahill and James Brennan, chairmen of the Committee on Energy and of the Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, released a joint statement in which they concluded Indian Point could be shut down with minimal effects on the state”™s energy infrastructure.
“The information we gathered clearly demonstrates that Indian Point can be shut down without unduly burdening New York”™s ratepayers or the electric system,” Cahill said.
Nappi disputed the assemblymen”™s conclusions.
“If you look at the testimony that was given at their committee, the majority of it spoke of pretty significant consequences to air quality, the cost of electricity and even to possible electrical grid instability if Indian Point were to be shut down,” Nappi said. “I would take issue with their conclusion based on the testimony that was given at their own committee hearing.”
In a separate proceeding, a group of 11 state lawmakers this month filed an amicus brief in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals relating to the case Brodsky v. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
In the filing, the lawmakers voice objections to fire safety exemptions previously granted to Entergy by the NRC relating to the insulation of electrical wiring at Indian Point.
Submitting the brief were State Sen. Suzi Oppenheimer and Assembly members Thomas Abinanti, James Brennan, Kevin Cahill, Robert Castelli, Jeffrey Dinowitz, Richard Gottfried, Ellen Jaffee, Micah Kellner, Amy Paulin, and Linda Rosenthal.
NRC spokeswoman Diane Screnci said the exemptions contested in the case are related to the exemptions discussed in the Feb. 1 report, but that they are being addressed as separate issues.
