NRC sets public hearing for annual Indian Point safety review

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold a public hearing Wednesday to discuss its annual safety performance review of Indian Point Energy Center, the first such hearing since the operator of the Buchanan nuclear plant announced it would shut down in four years.

The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Tarrytown. NRC inspections and oversight staff, including the inspectors based at Indian Point, will discuss plant performance and take questions.

More than 75 people signed up to speak and ask questions at last year’s review meeting, many of which called for the plant’s closing. As the plant’s operator, Entergy Corp., prepares to fully shutdown Indian Point by 2021, questions and concerns could likely shift to a focus on the decommissioning process.

The NRC reported that after more than 8,000 hours of inspection at the plant’s two reactors last year, both Indian Point Unit 2 and Unit 3 operated safely in 2016.

Both Indian Point Unit 2 and 3 are under the NRC”™s baseline level of oversight, which still entails thousands of hours of inspection yearly, according to the commission.

Doors open for the meeting at 6 p.m.