Judge upholds fire protection exemptions for Indian Point
NEW YORK – A US District Court judge ruled in favor of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on former New York State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky’s challenge to the agency’s issuance of fire protection exemptions for the Indian Point nuclear power plant.
The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit had previously required the agency either to seek public comment about its determination that the exemptions would have no significant environmental impact to explain why obtaining the views of the public was not necessary.
In response, the NRC solicited the views of the public, reissued an environmental assessment and associated finding of no significant environmental impact, and left the exemptions in place.
In her new decision, Chief District Court Judge Loretta Preska rejected Brodsky’s challenges to the NRC’s actions, ruling the agency had sufficiently engaged the public by seeking its comments and that no public hearing was required.
The judge also rejected other arguments that had been rejected in previous phases of the litigation, including the assertion that the agency had failed to consider the consequences of a potential terrorist attack, which the courts had already ruled were bounded by existing analyses of severe accidents.
