Two Rockland Lawmakers Call for Indian Point to be Shut Down

New City, NY – Rockland County Legislators Alden H. Wolfe and Harriet Cornell are calling for the closure of the Indian Point nuclear power plant, noting repeated issues at the four-decade-old facility.

 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission held its Annual Assessment public hearing Wednesday night at the DoubleTree hotel in Tarrytown. Foes and supporters of the plant held events before the meeting and spoke at it.

“The facts show that there should be NO future for this plant,”  Legislature Chairman Wolfe (D-Montebello) alleged in a press statement after the meeting. “Indian Point was not built to withstand a catastrophe such as a terrorist attack, an earthquake or a pipeline explosion, and there is a long list of continued safety problems, the latest of which involves missing and damaged bolts in the Unit 2 nuclear reactor. Not just any bolts, but the very lynchpins that mean the difference between a safe operating temperature and a nuclear melt-down, with the release of deadly radiation that would spread to the surrounding area and everyone living and working in it."

NRC staffers said at that meeting and earlier this week in a webinar with reporters that the plant is safe to operate. They said they based their performance assessment on 10,000 hours of independent observation by specialists as well as resident inspectors. They have also said their analysis shows an explosion at the nearby natural gas pipeline would not impede the plant's ability to operate and shut down properly.

SEE:

• Indian Point 2 Refueling after Record Run
•  NRC: Indian Point Safe to Restart

Cornell (D-West Nyack), who chairs the Legislature’s Environmental Committee, said the list of problems stretches back decades and recalled how, in 1984 when she joined the Legislature, she authored legislation to create a Citizens’ Commission to Close Indian Point.

Everyday citizens working with grassroots organizations have repeatedly demanded more attention be paid to Indian Point as the efforts to close it have continued, she said.

“Were it not for the superhuman efforts of concerned individuals and dedicated scientific and environmental organizations focusing attention on the dangers posed by Indian Point, who knows what might have happened during the last 40+ years,” Cornell said.

The latest "fiasco" involving the bolts highlights the increasing concern by residents, she said.

“Most of us wouldn’t drive a car if we knew that one out of four bolts holding our car together was missing or broken,” Cornell said. “Why should a weaker standard apply for a nuclear reactor where an accident would be catastrophic?”

NRC staffers said the issue with the baffle assembly that helps keep the reactor cool and safely shut down involved an ultrasonic inspection of baffle-former bolts required of all power plants with this particular design. The inspection found 227 out of 832 were degraded and two bolts were missing. Entergy is replacing all of the 227 as well as an additional 51 to help insure the plate’s integrity, they said.

MORE: Problem Inside Indian Point 2 Reactor: Bad Bolts

Wolf said he sees the bolts as just one problem in a "long and growing history of the truly frightening - multiple unplanned or emergency shutdowns, spiked concentrations of radioactive tritium-contaminated water leaking into groundwater, the spilling of 3,000 gallons of oil into our beloved Hudson River, leaking fuel pods, and more."

Wolf and Cornell alleged the incidents are proof that Indian Point has aged infrastructure that can’t be relied upon when it comes to the health and well-being of the public and the environment.

“It seems that the world has gone crazy, when a ticking time bomb and attractive terrorist target sitting on a fault line near a new natural gas pipeline route is not only deemed safe for operation, but appropriate for one of the most densely populated metropolitan areas in the country,” Wolfe said. “Simple logic demands that the plant be shut down.”

Wolfe and Cornell submitted written comments to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as part of the agency’s “Annual Assessment” meeting to discuss Indian Point’s safety record of the previous year; in this case, 2015.

Prior to the June 8 meeting, the legislators joined with advocates calling for the facility’s closure, including the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Friends of the Earth and Riverkeeper.

Wolfe noted that the situation is not all "doom and gloom because thanks to the efforts of many, including Gov. Andrew Cuomo, we are seeing an increase in the inclusion of alternative renewable energy sources in our power portfolio. By 2030, 50 percent of New York State’s power mix is to include renewables such as wind, solar, geothermal and hydroelectric power."

Wolfe has asked the PSC not to consider nuclear power generation as “clean” energy or to include it in the state’s milestones.

The Annual Assessment letter for Indian Point is available on the NRC website. Current performance information is also available for Unit 2 and Unit 3.

PHOTO: Rockland County Legislators Alden H. Wolfe (right) and Harriet Cornell (second from right) joined with other advocates calling for the shutdown of Indian Point prior to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's 'Annual Assessment' of the problem-plagued facility/contributed

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