COMMUNITY VIEW

View: Keeping Indian Point running, at what cost?

The aging nuclear plants in Buchanan pose problems, offer little benefit to energy supply

Gary Shaw
A view of the Indian Point nuclear power plant, photographed from Peekskill.

Since a February 2000 steam pipe rupture at Indian Point, which released radioactive steam into the air and radioactive water directly into the Hudson River, I have learned a lot about the nuclear plant in Buchanan. As reported by lohud, the plant continues to leak radioactive fluids into the groundwater under the plant. Here's some of the information I've learned about the plant, which can help people draw their own conclusions:

  • In 1979, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Director of State Programs, in charge of all emergency planning for all U.S. nuclear plants, testified in Westchester that "Indian Point is one of the most inappropriate sites in existence for a nuclear plant." His opinion was validated when former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director James Lee Witt did a comprehensive evaluation of the Indian Point Evacuation Plan and concluded that it could not work.
  • Indian Point has been classified by the NRC as the U.S. nuclear plant most likely to suffer damage from seismic activity. The Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory estimates that we could have a 7.0 earthquake there. The 5.8 earthquake near the North Anna nuclear plant in Virginia in 2011 produced ground acceleration levels (.26g) almost twice what Indian Point's reactors and spent fuel pools are designed for (.15g). The epicenter of the Virginia earthquake was 11 miles from the nuclear plant. Indian Point's Unit 3 is about one mile from the intersection of two earthquake faults.
  • Indian Point uses 2.5 billion gallons of Hudson River water every day. The intake kills fish and lower organisms on which fish feed and the water is returned at about 110 degrees. The U.S. Clean Water Act dictates that the "best technology available" to minimize the fish kills should be used and that would be closed cycle cooling, like a car radiator. Entergy wants to install a "wedge wire" system that will reduce the level of fish kill but will not decrease the water usage. Ironically, in 2003, Entergy joined with Riverkeeper and Scenic Hudson in a lawsuit against the EPA and Entergy claimed that wedge wire was not designed for systems that required more than 100 million gallons of water.
  • Entergy spokespeople claim that Indian Point supplies 25 percent of the usage of electricity in the Lower Westchester/New York City grid. Indian Point generates 2,069 megawatts when both reactors are running, but the New York Power Authority that delivers power to all municipal users has not had a contract with Indian Point since 2013, so no Indian Point output is used by Metro North, the subways, the airports, the New York City Housing Authority, the street lights, the municipal hospitals, the public schools and colleges. The Con Edison 2013 Company Report says they only buy 500 MW from Indian Point.

So our region accepts environmental damage and risks a nuclear disaster for very little electricity that is replaceable from other sources already in place. Decommissioning a nuclear plant is a long and labor intensive job. Draw your own conclusions.

The writer, a Croton resident, is a member of the Leadership Council of the Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition.