BUCHANAN – Holtec International, the company that bought the defunct Indian Point nuclear power plants and had scheduled to discharge radioactive water into the Hudson River in May has withdrawn that plan.
“Without clear information about what’s in the water, and a recent federal violation within the Indian Point treatment system, and a lack of transparency about its plans, Holtec has left our communities in the dark about its proposed release of over one million gallons of radioactive wastewater into the Hudson,” US Senator Charles Schumer said Thursday evening.
“Our Hudson Valley communities deserve answers from Holtec, the NRC, and other regulators overseeing the decommissioning of Indian Point, and I won’s stop fighting until I get them,” he said.
State Senator Pete Harckham (D, Mount Kisco) welcomed Holtec’s decision to postpone the release.
“There may not be good alternatives; there may not be a good solution. There is evaporation, which has its drawbacks. There is storage, which has its drawbacks. You can truck it and inject it into the ground somewhere in the desert, that has its drawbacks,” he said. “But just the thought of the standard practice of dumping tritiated water into the Hudson River was beyond the pale for a lot of folks and caught a lot of folks off guard.”
State Assemblywoman Dana Levenberg (D, Ossining) said Holtec “wisely” postponed the release. “The elected officials and advocates who have worked overtime with me and my office to demand greater accountability and transparency from Holtec deserve praise for their efforts, particularly over the last week. I am as committed as ever to ensuring that the needs of my constituents are respected through this process and urge everyone to maintain their engagement on this issue as it continues to develop,” she said.
Rockland County Executive Ed Day was pleased with Holtec’s announcement.
He noted there is pending state legislation to ban the discharging of radioactive waste in the Hudson, a petition of over 400,000 signatures, and several municipalities including Rockland formally objecting to the discharge.
“To rush this well ahead of the initial scheduled dumping in August would have been unconscionable and unfathomable considering the unanimous opposition against this,” Day said.
An NRC spokesman, this week, said the radioactive wastewater has been treated and will be diluted as it is mixed into the river.
