Indian Point supporter Arthur Kremmer rises to speak while opponents
wave yellow signs
TARRYTOWN – Supporters and opposing parties alike came out to Tarrytown, Wednesday evening, for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s annual assessment of safety report. That report gave Entergy good grades in its overall operation of its Indian Point nuclear power plants.
Before the open public comment period, each camp held separate news conferences
regarding their various concerns about the operation of Indian Point 3,
and the cessation of operation currently undergone by Indian Point 2.
Those in support of both Indian Point reactors re-licensing maintain the plant provides crucial energy needed to sustain the local and neighboring New York City infrastructure.
“Indian Point provides 2,000 megawatts of power, which is an enormous amount of power, which not only does it take care of Westchester, Orange, Rockland, Dutchess and that region, but it keeps the lights on in emergency rooms in New York City, keeps the subways running; so, it’s really vital to our having the lights go on when we flick that switch,” said Arthur “Jerry” Kremer, chairman of Affordable Reliable Electricity Alliance.
Deb Milone, executive director of the Gateway Chamber of Commerce, said she supports license renewal, calling Indian Point plant a crucial part of the economy of the local region.
“The plants provide more than $140 million a year in income to local families, and these wages support about 2,800 more jobs in our communities and I believe at this point, and the chamber supports the relicensing of these plants, and feel that it’s time that the NRC awards the license that Indian Point so deserves,” said Milone.
One of the individuals who represent those jobs Milone spoke of, Louis Picani, president of Teamsters Local 456, said despite the fact that bolt degradation was found within the critical infrastructure of Indian Point 2 leading it to be shut down for a time, he believes that does not constitute a reason for permanent shutdown of the facilities.
“Indian Point has been proven, time and time again, that it’s safe,” said Picani. “Just like any facility, maintenance is needed and is being performed here in a safe manner. By closing it down, we’d have a major impact, not only in Westchester County, but New York City, by not being able to provide enough electricity. We would lose jobs; actually, communities would close down because there wouldn’t be enough money in the budgets to fund the schools and the operating budgets needed to perform their daily duties.”
Opposition to the continued operation of the plants came from a number of environmental organizations.
“If the bolts are failing in IP3, and things start rumbling, things are going to fall apart more easily,” said Manna Jo Greene, environmental action director for the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. “So, I don’t think it’s necessarily a matter of just taking out the old bolts and putting in new bolts. I think that we need to really understand, the public needs to understand, what’s going on with those reactors: how dangerous are they and if they are as dangerous as we think this is systematic of, the plant absolutely should be closed and not relicensed for another 20 years. That’s really unthinkable. Environmentalists are sometimes accused of just saying what they are against and not what they’re for. We’ve worked as hard to ensure a rapid transition to a renewable energy economy as we are working to shut down aging, deteriorating nuclear reactors.”
The camp opposing Indian Point has also criticized the NRC’s analysis of what actually caused the bolt degradation in Indian Point 2 in the first place.
Bill Meyer, chairman of Lower Hudson Group Sierra Club said his, and organizations aligned with their concerns, would hope the public hearing will lead to the NRC commissioning an independent investigation on what exactly went wrong to the public.
“I think the best possible outcome would be to have the NRC follow the Friends of the Earth petition and actually do an independent root cause analysis of the metallurgy, and of the bolt failure and then to come back and report to the public what that failure is and if any type of remedy can be applied,” said Meyer. “In the meantime, reactor number 2 should be not allowed to operate and reactor number 3 should be immediately inspected for that same bolt failure.”
Other concerns the opposing parties cited were: transfer fires, leaks into the Hudson and overcrowded fuel pools leaving the lining of said pools susceptible to damage.
The NRC has acknowledged all of those issues with the plant.
Agency spokesman Neil Sheehan said they hold similar meetings annually.
“We’re trying to be as open and transparent about what we do and this is an opportunity to do that. I don’t know how many other federal agencies go out on an annual basis and talk about their oversight of a facility that they oversee, but we’ve committed to doing this,” Sheehan said.
When a decision on actually relicensing of the plants will be made is unknown at this time.
