Indian Point To Run Siren Test

CORTLANDT, NY — The Indian Point Energy Center emergency notification sirens will sound during a regular quarterly test of the system between 6 and 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.

As part of this test, sirens will sound at full-volume for about four minutes in Westchester, Rockland, Orange and Putnam counties.

Remember: Sirens are not a signal to evacuate. In an actual emergency, the sirens would sound to alert the public to tune in to a local Emergency Alert System (EAS) radio or television station for important information and direction. These stations are listed in the emergency planning booklet mailed to households and businesses in the 10-mile Emergency Planning Zone around Indian Point.

An electronic version of the booklet is posted on the Indian Point web site.

The plant's owner, Entergy, continues preparations for Indian Point's full shut-down next year. There are three reactors at Indian Point. The Unit 1 reactor was permanently shut down in 1974 and has been in long-term storage since then, awaiting decommissioning. Unit 2 was shut down in April. Unit 3 is scheduled to be shut down in 2021.

Federal regulations give plant owners 60 years to decommission a plant, which can include stabilizing it to spend years un-demolished.

The NRC is currently reviewing an application to transfer the license for the plant from current owner Entergy to Holtec International, which has proposed decommissioning and demolishing the facility by 2033.

There is litigation ongoing about Holtec, including a coalition of 12 states supporting Massachusetts's challenge to the NRC's approval for the transfer of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station's license to Holtec. In addition to leading that coalition, New York Attorney General Letitia James also filed a petition to intervene in the transfer of Indian Point to Holtec.

Meanwhile, Holtec proposed to expand its spent-fuel storage area at the site of the shuttered Oyster Creek Generating Station in New Jersey, fueling fears that the company was going to make it a storage site for other closed plants. The company is applying for a permit to do that in New Mexico.

SEE ALSO: San Clemente: San Onofre Begins New Chapter As Fuel Transfer Operations End