PEEKSKILL – The Indian Point Nuclear Decommissioning Citizen Advisory Panel held its first meeting Thursday night in Peekskill.
The panel was formed in March of this year thanks to the efforts of Buchanan Village Mayor Theresa Knickerbocker; its goal is to address community concerns about the closing of Indian Point and keep the public informed about the decommissioning process. Knickerbocker, Cortland Town Supervisor Linda Puglisi, Westchester County Executive George Latimer and several other local officials were in attendance for the CAP’s initial meeting.
Latimer believes his county is prepared to handle the projected loss of revenue that will stem from Indian Point’s closing.
“From our standpoint, we can absorb the loss of tax rateables; it’s not easy but we can absorb them,” Laltimer said. “We have other development that can occur around the county. We are working with Cortlandt and Buchanan to try to determine if there is any way the county can be helpful directly to them, particularly to Buchanan, because they are going to be the biggest hit of the general governments. The school district’s hit is going to have to be handled by the state because the state does direct financial assistance to schools; the counties do not.”
Latimer cited the rising cost of maintaining the facility and the relative cheapness of natural gas plants as the motivation for closing Indian Point.
“The purpose of this panel is to enhance open communication, public involvement, and education on the Indian Point decommissioning issues. The CAP will serve as a formal channel of community involvement with Indian Point,” said Mayor Knickerbocker, who will be serving as its chairwoman. She encouraged residents “to email, call, text, whatever” if they have any questions or concerns regarding the plant. She emphasized that “the (CAP) will reflect the will of the community.”
In addition to elected officials, the panel includes representatives from Buchanan’s local school district and fire department.
At their first session, the panel listened to a presentation from Mike Twomey, a representative from Entergy Nuclear, the current owners of Indian Point. Twomey explained that the Unit 2 of the facility experienced it last refueling outage in the spring of 2018 and will shut down permanently no later than April 30, 2020. Unit 3 underwent its last refueling in the spring of this year and will be shut down by April 30, 2021.
Entergy plans to sell the plant to Holtec International, a privately held company that supplies equipment and systems for the energy industry. The sale is still pending and must be approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Entergy will utilize Holtec’s services to manage the storage of spent nuclear fuel regardless of whether the sale is completed.
Entergy has promised to offer relocation packages for any qualified employees that wish to remain with the company after Indian Point closes. Holtec has promised to retain an unspecified number of employees if and when their purchase of the site is approved.
Twomey stated that the process of closing the plant could possibly take up to 60 years and that the decommissioning would go faster if Holtec takes control of the property. Regardless of who owns the plant, the decommissioning process will be closely monitored by the NRC.
The plant will need to build at least one new Independent Spent Fuel Storage Instillation to properly contain the radioactive materials currently on site. Once that is complete, “98-99 percent of the hazardous materials will be dealt with.”
