Troubled Indian Point reactor will reopen in summer

• The degraded bolts were discovered during a refueling that takes place every two years
• An anti-nuclear group wants federal safety regulators to keep the reactor shut down
• Plant owner says reopening Unit 2 will help keep electricity rates down and reduce carbon emissions

The Indian Point 2 nuclear reactor will reopen late next month in time for the summer’s peak energy season after a longer-than-expected shutdown because of deteriorating bolts critical to the plant’s safety.

But an anti-nuclear group opposes that reopening plan and appealed to federal authorities.

In March, federal safety inspectors discovered some 227 of 832 baffle bolts were degraded or cracking during an inspection of Unit 2 timed to coincide with an “outage” or refueling that takes place every two years.

The discovery and the bolts’ replacement added some two months to the scheduled reopening of the reactor, said Jerry Nappi, a spokesman for Indian Point’s Louisiana-based owner, Entergy.

Indian Point’s second reactor – Unit 3 – picked up the slack, providing electricity to some 1 million homes in Westchester County and New York City, Nappi noted.

“Unit 3 has been at full power the entire time,” Nappi said.

FUTURE: NY weighs future of Indian Point, upstate nuclear power plants 
ALLIANCE : Environmentalists back nuclear power  
SAFETY: 'Faulty bolts' discovered at Indian Point

Additionally, Entergy has moved up by two years the inspection of Unit 3 that was scheduled for 2019, Nappi said.

On Tuesday, the anti-nuclear group, Friends of the Earth, filed an emergency petition with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, demanding a shutdown of Unit 2 until the bolt issue was “fully diagnosed and fixed.”

“Although more than one quarter of the bolts critical to the core cooling system (and essential to preventing a nuclear meltdown) are broken, degraded or missing, Entergy is pushing to simply replace the bolts and restart reactor 2 (in time for the profitable peak summer season) before completing a root cause analysis of why the bolts broke or disappeared,” Friends of the Earth said in a statement.

The NRC’s next quarterly report on Indian Point is due in July. But NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said the commission could issue a separate report on the bolts issue in the coming months.

“We will independently review the company’s analyses on the condition at Indian Point 2 and possible implications for Indian Point 3, as well as bolt-replacement work to ensure safety,” Sheehan said. “The results of those reviews will be documented in an upcoming inspection report for the plant. We are also considering the need for generic communications to other plant owners on the subject.”

Earlier this month, the NRC said “the number of degraded baffle-former bolts was the largest seen to date at a U.S. reactor."

The NRC has not issued a decision on the Friends of the Earth petition.

Nappi said the reopening of Unit 2 will help keep electricity rates down and spare the atmosphere carbon emissions.

“You want to be online to meet the demand,” Nappi said. “Without Indian Point rates are higher and pollution is greater because plants that burn fossil fuels are the replacements for Indian Point's emission-free power.”

SHUTDOWN BATTLE: A tale of 2 nuclear power plants

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has called for the shutdown of Indian Point, largely because of concerns for a safe evacuation should a nuclear mishap take place at the plant located some 30 miles north of New York City in the village of Buchanan.

Meanwhile, Cuomo is pushing a slate of financial incentives to help several struggling upstate nuclear power plants remain open. Cuomo says the upstate plants are carbon-free alternatives that will act as a “bridge” to a point in the future when the state relies more heavily on renewable energy sources like wind and solar power.