New York state and a Hudson River environmental group in Tarrytown have joined Westchester County in opposing the relicensing of two Indian Point nuclear power plants for numerous public safety, security and environmental reasons in petitions filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Countering its opposition”™s public display of unity in White Plains last week, officials at Entergy Corp., which owns and operates the nuclear reactors in Buchanan that are up for 20-year license extensions in 2013 and 2015, called on officials to “rise above political pressure” and “fear-based rhetoric” and consider the harmful economic and environmental impact that closing the plants would have on the lower Hudson Valley region and New York City.
Led by Lt. Gov. David Paterson and state Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, several elected federal, state and county officials and the head of the environmental advocacy group Riverkeeper spoke forcefully against Indian Point relicensing and the nuclear-power facility”™s continued operation at a press conference in White Plains hosted by Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano. The state on Nov. 30 filed a lengthy petition to intervene in relicensing proceedings with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that included 32 points of contention regarding plant operations and its threat to public health and safety and the environment.
Paterson stood in for Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who in a statement said Indian Point should be closed as soon as sufficient replacement power is available. Spitzer said Entergy”™s relicensing application did not address a number of crucial issues and should not be granted in its present form.
“Simply put, Indian Point presents too much of a risk at this point in history,” Paterson said.
A little more than 40 miles from Times Square and a little less than 50 miles from Wall Street and with 17 million to 20 million people in three states living within its 50-mile emergency evacuation radius, Indian Point poses an insurmountable public security and safety risk, the lieutenant governor and other officials said.
State officials in their NRC filing noted that al-Qaeda terrorists considered attacking nuclear power plants with aircraft and that the two planes that struck the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001 flew near or over Indian Point. “The choice of those planes to hit the World Trade Center was their choice,” Paterson said. “Had they made another one” and struck Indian Point, “who knows what kind of devastation we”™d be trying to address at this point.”
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Cuomo, who described himself as a long-time Indian Point opponent, said the state has “a four- or five-pronged legal strategy” to close the nuclear plant. “This is one fight in a protracted legal battle,” he said of the state”™s petition to intervene. “We are committed to this fight.”
“My position is very simple,” Cuomo said. “I believe Indian Point should be closed and it should be closed now.” The county and state should not have to go though the legal relicensing process for Indian Point, he said. “It is in my opinion, and has been for a very long time, a catastrophe waiting to happen.”
Cuomo and other officials said the 2,000 megawatts of power generated at Indian Point can be replaced through energy conservation, “clean” coal and natural gas and other alternative energy sources. “If the plant closes, we can replace the power,” Cuomo said. “If there is an accident at the plant, we can never replace the loss.”
Congressman John Hall, D-Dover, who with U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey, D-Harrison, is sponsoring a Nuclear Power Licensing Reform Act in Congress that would force aging plants such as Indian Point to comply with stricter standards for newly built nuclear facilities, noted that Indian Point has had emergency shutdowns in the last year. “The lights in New York City have not gone out,” he said.
Hall suggested the federal government and Entergy join area officials as partners in making the transition from nuclear power generation to alternative energy production at Indian Point. The facility”™s nuclear power can be replaced and jobs retained there “if we have a true team effort and a good-faith effort,” Hall said.
Responding to the elected opponents”™ show of strength, Entergy officials said the company”™s investment of “hundreds of millions of dollars” in Indian Point operating systems and safety and security measures has made it “one of the most reliable and best performing plants in the region” that provides reliable, lower-cost electricity to such public users as the Metropolitan Transit Authority for its city subways and Metro-North trains.
Entergy officials said replacing Indian Point”™s nuclear-generated power, which produces no greenhouse gases, would lead to a 20 percent rise in carbon dioxide emissions from fossil-fuel-burning plants, a 19 percent increase in nitrous oxide emissions and a 1 percent rise in sulfur-dioxide emissions.
Entergy officials also cited a National Academy of Sciences study that they said concluded that a forced shutdown of Indian Point would raise the risk of major power outages in the region.
Regarding that last claim by Entergy, Cuomo said: “Baloney.”
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