Indian Point Energy Center
Encyclopedia
Indian Point Energy Center (IPEC) is a three-unit nuclear power plant
station located in Buchanan, New York
just south of Peekskill. It sits on the east bank of the Hudson River
, 38 miles north of New York City
. The plant generates over 2,000 megawatts of electrical power, comprising as much as 30 percent of the electricity used in New York City and Westchester County.
The plant is owned and operated by Entergy Nuclear Northeast, a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation, and includes two operating Westinghouse
pressurized water reactor
s – designated Indian Point 2 and Indian Point 3 – which Entergy bought from Consolidated Edison
and the New York Power Authority
respectively. The facility also contains the permanently shut down Indian Point Unit 1 reactor. Total employment at the site is 1,100.
, was the first of three reactors at this location. It was a 275-megawatt pressurized water reactor
and was issued an operating license on March 26, 1962 and started operations on September 16, 1962. The first core at the Indian Point power station used a thorium
-based fuel, but it did not live up to expectations. The plant was operated with uranium oxide
fuel for the remainder of its operations.
The Unit 1 reactor was shut down on October 31, 1974 because the emergency core cooling system did not meet regulatory requirements. All spent fuel was removed from the reactor vessel by January 1976. The licensee, Entergy, plans to decommission Unit 1 with Unit 2.
s at the facility. According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the Indian Point spent fuel pools, which contain more nuclear material than the reactors, "have no containment structure". While the spent fuel pools at Indian Point are not stored under a containment dome like the reactor, they are contained within a 40-foot-deep pool and submerged under 27 feet of water. The spent fuel pools at Indian Point are made of concrete walls that are four to six feet wide with a half-inch thick stainless steel inner liner. According to Jonathan Alter
, the pools are located in bedrock, not above-ground as at many other plants including the Japanese ones.
Indian Point began "dry casking
" spent fuel rods in 2008, a "safer alternative", according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Some rods have already been moved to casks from the spent fuel pools, which will be kept "nearly full of spent fuel, leaving enough space to allow emptying the reactor completely should that become necessary." Dry cask storage systems are designed to resist floods, tornadoes, projectiles, temperature extremes, and other unusual scenarios. NRC requires the spent fuel to be cooled in the spent fuel pool for at least five years before being transferred to dry casks.
In 2005, Entergy workers while digging discovered a small leak in a spent fuel pool. Water containing tritium and strontium 90 was leaking through a crack in the pool building "and then finding its way into the nearby Hudson River." Workers were able to keep the fuel rods "safely covered" despite the leak. On March 22, 2006 the New York Times also reported finding radioactive nickel-63 and strontium in groundwater on site.
On April 23, 2007, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
fined the owner of the Indian Point nuclear plant $130,000 for failing to meet a deadline for a new emergency siren plan. The 150 sirens at the plant are meant to alert residents within 10 miles to a plant emergency.
On January 7, 2010, NRC inspectors reported that an estimated 600,000 gallons of mildly radioactive steam was intentionally vented to the atmosphere after an automatic shutdown of Unit 2. After the vent, one of the vent valves stayed unintended slightly open for two days. It seems that there was a minor steam generator tube leak from the primary circuit. The levels of tritium in the steam were below those allowable by NRC safety standards.
On November 7, 2010, an explosion occurred in the main transformer for Indian Point 2.
During the September 11 attacks, American Airlines Flight 11
flew near the Indian Point Energy Center en route to the World Trade Center
. Mohamed Atta
, one of the 9/11 hijackers/plotters, had considered nuclear facilities for targeting in a terrorist attack. Entergy says it is prepared for a terrorist attack, and asserts that a large airliner crash into the containment building
would not cause reactor damage. Following 9/11 the NRC required operators of nuclear facilities in the U.S. to examine the effects of terrorist events and provide planned responses.In September 2006, the Indian Point Security Department successfully completed mock assault exercises required by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. However, according to Riverkeeper
, an environmental
group, these NRC exercises are inadequate, because they do not envision a large enough group of attackers.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation states that the spent fuel pools at Indian Point are "exposed and unsecured" and therefore "vulnerable to attack". According to the New York Times, fuel stored in dry casks is "less vulnerable to terrorist attack than fuel in the storage pools".
concluded that the "current radiological response system and capabilities are not adequate to...protect the people from an unacceptable dose of radiation in the event of a release from Indian Point.”
defines two emergency planning zones around nuclear power plants: a plume exposure pathway zone with a radius of 10 miles (16.1 km), concerned primarily with exposure to, and inhalation of, airborne radioactive contamination, and an ingestion pathway zone of about 50 miles (80.5 km), concerned primarily with ingestion of food and liquid contaminated by radioactivity.
The 2010 U.S. population within 10 miles (16.1 km) of Indian Point was 272,539, an increase of 17.6 percent in a decade, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data for msnbc.com. The 2010 U.S. population within 50 miles (80.5 km) was 17,220,895, an increase of 5.1 percent since 2000. Cities within 50 miles include New York (41 miles to city center); Newark, N.J., (39 miles); Stamford, Conn., (24 miles); Bridgeport, Conn., (40 miles).
In the wake of the 2011 Japanese nuclear accidents
, columnist Peter Applebome noted in The New York Times that a fifty mile radius from Indian Point (the area which the State Department suggested Americans avoid in Japan) "includes almost all of New York City except for Staten Island; almost all of Nassau County and much of Suffolk; all of Bergen County, N.J.; all of Fairfield, Conn.". He quotes Purdue University professor Daniel Aldrich: "“Many scholars have already argued that any evacuation plans shouldn’t be called plans, but rather ‘fantasy documents".
The current 10-Mile Plume Exposure Pathway Emergency Planning Zone (EPZ) is one of two EPZs intended to facilitate a preplanned strategy for protective actions during an emergency and comply with NRC regulations.
“The exact size and shape of each EPZ is a result of detailed planning which includes consideration of the specific conditions at each site, unique geographical features of the area, and demographic information. This preplanned strategy for an EPZ provides a substantial basis to support activity beyond the planning zone in the extremely unlikely event it would be needed.”
In an interview, Entergy executives said they doubt that the evacuation zone would be expanded to reach as far as New York City.
's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
have located a previously unknown active seismic zone running from Stamford, Connecticut
, to the Hudson Valley
town of Peekskill, New York - the intersection of the Stamford-Peekskill line with the well known Ramapo Fault
- which passes less than a mile north of the Indian Point nuclear power plant. Indian Point was built to withstand an earthquake of 6.1 on the Richter scale, according to a company spokesman. Entergy executives have also noted "that Indian Point had been designed to withstand an earthquake much stronger than any on record in the region, though not one as powerful as the quake that rocked Japan".
In the opinion of some seismologists, the Ramapo fault is unlikely to exhibit significant activity, , or is "dead".
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's estimate of the risk each year of an earthquake intense enough to cause core damage to the reactor at Indian Point was Reactor 2: 1 in 30,303; Reactor 3: 1 in 10,000, according to an NRC study published in August 2010. Msnbc.com
reported based on the NRC data that "Indian Point nuclear reactor No. 3 has the highest risk of earthquake damage in the country, according to new NRC risk estimates provided to msnbc.com." According to the report, the reason is that plants in known earthquake zones like California were designed to be more quake-resistant than those in less affected areas like New York. The NRC did not dispute the numbers but responded in a release that "The NRC results to date should not be interpreted as definitive estimates of seismic risk," because the NRC does not rank plants by seismic risk.
On September 23, 2007, Friends United for Sustainable Energy (FUSE) filed legal papers with the NRC opposing the relicensing of the Indian Point 2 reactor. The group contends that the NRC improperly held Indian Point to less stringent design requirements. The NRC responds that the newer requirements were put in place after the plant was complete.
On December 1, 2007, Westchester County Executive Andrew J. Spano, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo
, and New York Governor Elliot Spitzer called a press conference with the participation of environmental advocacy groups Clearwater
and Riverkeeper to announce their united opposition to the re-licensing of the Indian Point nuclear power plants. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
and the Office of the Attorney General requested a hearing as part of the process put forth by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In September 2007 The New York Times
reported on the rigorous legal opposition Entergy
faces in its request for a 20-year licensing extension for Indian Point Nuclear reactor 2.
A water quality certificate is a prerequisite for a 20-year renewal by the NRC.
On 3 April 2010 the Department of Environmental Conservation ruled that Indian Point violates the federal Clean Water Act
, because "the power plant’s water-intake system kills nearly a billion aquatic organisms a year, including the shortnose sturgeon, an endangered species." The state is demanding Entergy construct new closed-cycle cooling towers, at a cost of over $1B, a decision that will effectively close the plant for nearly a year. Regulators denied Entergy's request to install fish screen
s that they said would improve fish mortality more than new cooling towers.
Advocates of recertifying Indian Point include New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg
, who says that "Indian Point is critical to the city's economic viability". According to New York Independent System Operator spokesman Ken Klapp: "Without Indian Point, system voltages would also degrade, limiting the ability to transfer power from upstate New York resources through the Hudson Valley to New York City."
As governor, Andrew Cuomo continues to call for closure of Indian Point.
In late June 2011, a Cuomo advisor in a meeting with Entergy executives informed them for the first time directly of the Governor's intention to close the plant, while the legislature approved a bill to streamline the process of siting replacement plants.
Nuclear energy industry figures and analysts responded to Cuomo's initiative by questioning whether replacement electrical plants could be certified and built rapidly enough to replace Indian Point, given New York state's "cumbersome regulation process", and also noted that replacement power from out of state sources will be hard to obtain because "New York has weak ties to generation capacity in other states." They said that possible consequences of closure will be a sharp increase in the cost of electricity for downstate users and even "rotating black-outs".
Several members of the House of Representatives representing districts near the plant have also opposed recertification, including Democrats Nita Lowey
, Maurice Hinchey
, and Eliot Engel and then Republican member Sue Kelly.
“The economic activity generated by Indian Point create(d) another 1,200 jobs in the five-county region. Given the combination of employees at the plant and secondary jobs created by Indian Point’s economic activity, the plant is responsible for 2,500 jobs in Westchester, Orange, Rockland, Putnam and Dutchess counties.”
Nuclear power plant
A nuclear power plant is a thermal power station in which the heat source is one or more nuclear reactors. As in a conventional thermal power station the heat is used to generate steam which drives a steam turbine connected to a generator which produces electricity.Nuclear power plants are usually...
station located in Buchanan, New York
Buchanan, New York
Buchanan is a village located in the town of Cortlandt in Westchester County, New York. The population was 2,230 as of the 2010 census.The Indian Point nuclear power plant is located in Buchanan.-Geography:Buchanan is located at ....
just south of Peekskill. It sits on the east bank of the Hudson River
Hudson River
The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...
, 38 miles north of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The plant generates over 2,000 megawatts of electrical power, comprising as much as 30 percent of the electricity used in New York City and Westchester County.
The plant is owned and operated by Entergy Nuclear Northeast, a subsidiary of Entergy Corporation, and includes two operating Westinghouse
Westinghouse Electric Company
Westinghouse Electric Company LLC is a nuclear power company, offering a wide range of nuclear products and services to utilities throughout the world, including nuclear fuel, service and maintenance, instrumentation and control and advanced nuclear plant designs...
pressurized water reactor
Pressurized water reactor
Pressurized water reactors constitute a large majority of all western nuclear power plants and are one of three types of light water reactor , the other types being boiling water reactors and supercritical water reactors...
s – designated Indian Point 2 and Indian Point 3 – which Entergy bought from Consolidated Edison
Consolidated Edison
Consolidated Edison, Inc. is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the United States, with approximately $14 billion in annual revenues and $36 billion in assets...
and the New York Power Authority
New York Power Authority
The New York Power Authority , officially the Power Authority of the State of New York , is a New York State public benefit corporation and the largest state-owned power organization in the United States. NYPA provides some of the lowest-cost electricity in New York State, operating 17 generating...
respectively. The facility also contains the permanently shut down Indian Point Unit 1 reactor. Total employment at the site is 1,100.
Unit 1
Indian Point 1, built by Consolidated EdisonConsolidated Edison
Consolidated Edison, Inc. is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the United States, with approximately $14 billion in annual revenues and $36 billion in assets...
, was the first of three reactors at this location. It was a 275-megawatt pressurized water reactor
Pressurized water reactor
Pressurized water reactors constitute a large majority of all western nuclear power plants and are one of three types of light water reactor , the other types being boiling water reactors and supercritical water reactors...
and was issued an operating license on March 26, 1962 and started operations on September 16, 1962. The first core at the Indian Point power station used a thorium
Thorium
Thorium is a natural radioactive chemical element with the symbol Th and atomic number 90. It was discovered in 1828 and named after Thor, the Norse god of thunder....
-based fuel, but it did not live up to expectations. The plant was operated with uranium oxide
Uranium oxide
Uranium oxide is an oxide of the element uranium.The metal uranium forms several oxides:* Uranium dioxide or uranium oxide * Uranium trioxide or uranium oxide...
fuel for the remainder of its operations.
The Unit 1 reactor was shut down on October 31, 1974 because the emergency core cooling system did not meet regulatory requirements. All spent fuel was removed from the reactor vessel by January 1976. The licensee, Entergy, plans to decommission Unit 1 with Unit 2.
Units 2 and 3
The two additional reactors, Indian Point 2 and 3, were built in 1974 and 1976 respectively. Together they generate up to 30% of the electricity used in New York City, depending on a variety of conditions. Unit 2 generates up to 1,025 MW while Unit 3 generates up to 1,040 MW. The reactors at Indian Point are protected by containment domes made of steel-reinforced concrete that is four- to six-feet thick.Nuclear Capacity in New York State
Located in New York State, Indian Point Units 2 and 3 are two of six operating nuclear energy sources in the state. New York is one of the five largest states in terms of nuclear capacity and generation, accounting for approximately 5% of the national totals. Nuclear power is less than 13% of New York’s electric capacity, but it produces nearly 30% of the State’s electricity. Although many States with similarly sized nuclear industries are net electricity exporters, New York has historically been an electricity importer due to its high consumption .Spent fuel
Indian Point stores used fuel rods in two spent fuel poolSpent fuel pool
Spent fuel pools are storage pools for spent fuel from nuclear reactors. They are typically 40 or more feet deep, with the bottom 14 feet equipped with storage racks designed to hold fuel assemblies removed from the reactor. A reactor's pool is specially designed for the reactor in which the...
s at the facility. According to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the Indian Point spent fuel pools, which contain more nuclear material than the reactors, "have no containment structure". While the spent fuel pools at Indian Point are not stored under a containment dome like the reactor, they are contained within a 40-foot-deep pool and submerged under 27 feet of water. The spent fuel pools at Indian Point are made of concrete walls that are four to six feet wide with a half-inch thick stainless steel inner liner. According to Jonathan Alter
Jonathan Alter
Jonathan Alter is an American journalist and author who was a columnist and senior editor for Newsweek magazine from 1983 until 2011. He is currently a lead columnist for Bloomberg View, a new commentary website. He is also a contributing correspondent to NBC News, where since 1996 he has appeared...
, the pools are located in bedrock, not above-ground as at many other plants including the Japanese ones.
Indian Point began "dry casking
Dry cask storage
Dry cask storage is a method of storing high-level radioactive waste, such as spent nuclear fuel that has already been cooled in the spent fuel pool for at least one year.. These casks are typically steel cylinders that are either welded or bolted closed. When inside, the fuel rods are surrounded...
" spent fuel rods in 2008, a "safer alternative", according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Some rods have already been moved to casks from the spent fuel pools, which will be kept "nearly full of spent fuel, leaving enough space to allow emptying the reactor completely should that become necessary." Dry cask storage systems are designed to resist floods, tornadoes, projectiles, temperature extremes, and other unusual scenarios. NRC requires the spent fuel to be cooled in the spent fuel pool for at least five years before being transferred to dry casks.
Incidents
On October 17, 1980, 100,000 gallons of Hudson River water leaked into the Indian Point 2 containment building from the fan cooling unit, undetected by a safety device designed to detect hot water. The flooding, covering the first 9 feet of the reactor vessel, was discovered when technicians entered the building. Two pumps which should have removed the water were found to be inoperative. NRC proposed a $210,000 fine for the incident.In 2005, Entergy workers while digging discovered a small leak in a spent fuel pool. Water containing tritium and strontium 90 was leaking through a crack in the pool building "and then finding its way into the nearby Hudson River." Workers were able to keep the fuel rods "safely covered" despite the leak. On March 22, 2006 the New York Times also reported finding radioactive nickel-63 and strontium in groundwater on site.
On April 23, 2007, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is an independent agency of the United States government that was established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 from the United States Atomic Energy Commission, and was first opened January 19, 1975...
fined the owner of the Indian Point nuclear plant $130,000 for failing to meet a deadline for a new emergency siren plan. The 150 sirens at the plant are meant to alert residents within 10 miles to a plant emergency.
On January 7, 2010, NRC inspectors reported that an estimated 600,000 gallons of mildly radioactive steam was intentionally vented to the atmosphere after an automatic shutdown of Unit 2. After the vent, one of the vent valves stayed unintended slightly open for two days. It seems that there was a minor steam generator tube leak from the primary circuit. The levels of tritium in the steam were below those allowable by NRC safety standards.
On November 7, 2010, an explosion occurred in the main transformer for Indian Point 2.
Safety
On March 10, 2009 the Indian Point Power Plant was awarded the fifth consecutive top safety rating for annual operations by the Federal regulators. According to the Hudson County Journal News, the plant had shown substantial improvement in its "safety culture" in the previous two years.Terrorism
Indian Point is protected by federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, including a National Guard base within a mile of the facility, as well as by private off-site security forces.During the September 11 attacks, American Airlines Flight 11
American Airlines Flight 11
American Airlines Flight 11 was American Airlines' daily scheduled morning transcontinental flight from Logan International Airport, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Los Angeles International Airport, in Los Angeles, California...
flew near the Indian Point Energy Center en route to the World Trade Center
World Trade Center
The original World Trade Center was a complex with seven buildings featuring landmark twin towers in Lower Manhattan, New York City, United States. The complex opened on April 4, 1973, and was destroyed in 2001 during the September 11 attacks. The site is currently being rebuilt with five new...
. Mohamed Atta
Mohamed Atta
Mohamed Mohamed el-Amir Awad el-Sayed Atta was one of the masterminds and the ringleader of the September 11 attacks who served as the hijacker-pilot of American Airlines Flight 11, crashing the plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Center as part of the coordinated attacks.Born in 1968...
, one of the 9/11 hijackers/plotters, had considered nuclear facilities for targeting in a terrorist attack. Entergy says it is prepared for a terrorist attack, and asserts that a large airliner crash into the containment building
Containment building
A containment building, in its most common usage, is a steel or reinforced concrete structure enclosing a nuclear reactor. It is designed, in any emergency, to contain the escape of radiation to a maximum pressure in the range of 60 to 200 psi...
would not cause reactor damage. Following 9/11 the NRC required operators of nuclear facilities in the U.S. to examine the effects of terrorist events and provide planned responses.In September 2006, the Indian Point Security Department successfully completed mock assault exercises required by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. However, according to Riverkeeper
Riverkeeper
Riverkeeper is an environmental non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of the Hudson River and its tributaries, as well as the watersheds that provide New York City with its drinking water...
, an environmental
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
group, these NRC exercises are inadequate, because they do not envision a large enough group of attackers.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation states that the spent fuel pools at Indian Point are "exposed and unsecured" and therefore "vulnerable to attack". According to the New York Times, fuel stored in dry casks is "less vulnerable to terrorist attack than fuel in the storage pools".
Safety Procedures
A 2003 report commissioned by then Governor George PatakiGeorge Pataki
George Elmer Pataki is an American politician who was the 53rd Governor of New York. A member of the Republican Party, Pataki served three consecutive four-year terms from January 1, 1995 until December 31, 2006.- Early life :...
concluded that the "current radiological response system and capabilities are not adequate to...protect the people from an unacceptable dose of radiation in the event of a release from Indian Point.”
Evacuation
The Nuclear Regulatory CommissionNuclear Regulatory Commission
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is an independent agency of the United States government that was established by the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 from the United States Atomic Energy Commission, and was first opened January 19, 1975...
defines two emergency planning zones around nuclear power plants: a plume exposure pathway zone with a radius of 10 miles (16.1 km), concerned primarily with exposure to, and inhalation of, airborne radioactive contamination, and an ingestion pathway zone of about 50 miles (80.5 km), concerned primarily with ingestion of food and liquid contaminated by radioactivity.
The 2010 U.S. population within 10 miles (16.1 km) of Indian Point was 272,539, an increase of 17.6 percent in a decade, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data for msnbc.com. The 2010 U.S. population within 50 miles (80.5 km) was 17,220,895, an increase of 5.1 percent since 2000. Cities within 50 miles include New York (41 miles to city center); Newark, N.J., (39 miles); Stamford, Conn., (24 miles); Bridgeport, Conn., (40 miles).
In the wake of the 2011 Japanese nuclear accidents
2011 Japanese nuclear accidents
This is a list of articles describing aspects of the nuclear shut-downs, failures, and nuclear meltdowns triggered by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.-Fukushima nuclear power plants:* Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant...
, columnist Peter Applebome noted in The New York Times that a fifty mile radius from Indian Point (the area which the State Department suggested Americans avoid in Japan) "includes almost all of New York City except for Staten Island; almost all of Nassau County and much of Suffolk; all of Bergen County, N.J.; all of Fairfield, Conn.". He quotes Purdue University professor Daniel Aldrich: "“Many scholars have already argued that any evacuation plans shouldn’t be called plans, but rather ‘fantasy documents".
The current 10-Mile Plume Exposure Pathway Emergency Planning Zone (EPZ) is one of two EPZs intended to facilitate a preplanned strategy for protective actions during an emergency and comply with NRC regulations.
“The exact size and shape of each EPZ is a result of detailed planning which includes consideration of the specific conditions at each site, unique geographical features of the area, and demographic information. This preplanned strategy for an EPZ provides a substantial basis to support activity beyond the planning zone in the extremely unlikely event it would be needed.”
In an interview, Entergy executives said they doubt that the evacuation zone would be expanded to reach as far as New York City.
Earthquake risk
In 2008 researchers from Columbia UniversityColumbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
The Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory is a research unit of Columbia University located on a campus in Palisades, N.Y., north of Manhattan on the Hudson River.- History :...
have located a previously unknown active seismic zone running from Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford, Connecticut
Stamford is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 122,643, making it the fourth largest city in the state and the eighth largest city in New England...
, to the Hudson Valley
Hudson Valley
The Hudson Valley comprises the valley of the Hudson River and its adjacent communities in New York State, United States, from northern Westchester County northward to the cities of Albany and Troy.-History:...
town of Peekskill, New York - the intersection of the Stamford-Peekskill line with the well known Ramapo Fault
Ramapo Fault
The Ramapo Fault zone, spanning more than 185 miles in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, is a system of faults between the northern Appalachian Mountains and Piedmont areas to the east. This fault is perhaps the best known fault zone in the Mid-Atlantic region, and some small earthquakes...
- which passes less than a mile north of the Indian Point nuclear power plant. Indian Point was built to withstand an earthquake of 6.1 on the Richter scale, according to a company spokesman. Entergy executives have also noted "that Indian Point had been designed to withstand an earthquake much stronger than any on record in the region, though not one as powerful as the quake that rocked Japan".
In the opinion of some seismologists, the Ramapo fault is unlikely to exhibit significant activity, , or is "dead".
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's estimate of the risk each year of an earthquake intense enough to cause core damage to the reactor at Indian Point was Reactor 2: 1 in 30,303; Reactor 3: 1 in 10,000, according to an NRC study published in August 2010. Msnbc.com
Msnbc.com
msnbc.com is a news website owned and operated as a joint venture by NBCUniversal and Microsoft.In addition to original content from its news staff, msnbc.com is the news website for the NBC News family, with content from the cable television news channel MSNBC, NBC shows such as Today, NBC Nightly...
reported based on the NRC data that "Indian Point nuclear reactor No. 3 has the highest risk of earthquake damage in the country, according to new NRC risk estimates provided to msnbc.com." According to the report, the reason is that plants in known earthquake zones like California were designed to be more quake-resistant than those in less affected areas like New York. The NRC did not dispute the numbers but responded in a release that "The NRC results to date should not be interpreted as definitive estimates of seismic risk," because the NRC does not rank plants by seismic risk.
Recertification or closure
On May 2, 2007, the NRC announced that the "License Renewal Application for Indian Point Nuclear Plant is available for Public Inspection". This initiated Entergy's effort to extend the operating licenses of each unit by 20 years. The original federal licenses for the two reactors expire in 2013 and 2015 .On September 23, 2007, Friends United for Sustainable Energy (FUSE) filed legal papers with the NRC opposing the relicensing of the Indian Point 2 reactor. The group contends that the NRC improperly held Indian Point to less stringent design requirements. The NRC responds that the newer requirements were put in place after the plant was complete.
On December 1, 2007, Westchester County Executive Andrew J. Spano, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo
Andrew Cuomo
Andrew Mark Cuomo is the 56th and current Governor of New York, having assumed office on January 1, 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the 64th New York State Attorney General, and was the 11th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development...
, and New York Governor Elliot Spitzer called a press conference with the participation of environmental advocacy groups Clearwater
Clearwater
-Places:Canada* Clearwater, British Columbia* Clearwater, Manitoba* Clearwater County, Alberta* Clear Water Academy, a private Catholic school located in Calgary, Alberta...
and Riverkeeper to announce their united opposition to the re-licensing of the Indian Point nuclear power plants. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is responsible for the conservation, improvement, and protection of natural resources within the U.S. state of New York. It was founded in 1970, replacing the previous Conservation Department...
and the Office of the Attorney General requested a hearing as part of the process put forth by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. In September 2007 The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
reported on the rigorous legal opposition Entergy
Entergy
Entergy Corporation is an integrated energy company engaged primarily in electric power production and retail distribution operations. It is headquartered in the Central Business District of New Orleans, Louisiana.-History:...
faces in its request for a 20-year licensing extension for Indian Point Nuclear reactor 2.
A water quality certificate is a prerequisite for a 20-year renewal by the NRC.
On 3 April 2010 the Department of Environmental Conservation ruled that Indian Point violates the federal Clean Water Act
Clean Water Act
The Clean Water Act is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Commonly abbreviated as the CWA, the act established the goals of eliminating releases of high amounts of toxic substances into water, eliminating additional water pollution by 1985, and ensuring that...
, because "the power plant’s water-intake system kills nearly a billion aquatic organisms a year, including the shortnose sturgeon, an endangered species." The state is demanding Entergy construct new closed-cycle cooling towers, at a cost of over $1B, a decision that will effectively close the plant for nearly a year. Regulators denied Entergy's request to install fish screen
Fish screen
A fish screen is designed to prevent fish from swimming or being drawn into an aqueduct, cooling water intake, dam or other diversion on a river, lake or waterway where water is taken for human use. They are built to supply debris-free water without harming aquatic life...
s that they said would improve fish mortality more than new cooling towers.
Advocates of recertifying Indian Point include New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg
Michael Bloomberg
Michael Rubens Bloomberg is the current Mayor of New York City. With a net worth of $19.5 billion in 2011, he is also the 12th-richest person in the United States...
, who says that "Indian Point is critical to the city's economic viability". According to New York Independent System Operator spokesman Ken Klapp: "Without Indian Point, system voltages would also degrade, limiting the ability to transfer power from upstate New York resources through the Hudson Valley to New York City."
As governor, Andrew Cuomo continues to call for closure of Indian Point.
In late June 2011, a Cuomo advisor in a meeting with Entergy executives informed them for the first time directly of the Governor's intention to close the plant, while the legislature approved a bill to streamline the process of siting replacement plants.
Nuclear energy industry figures and analysts responded to Cuomo's initiative by questioning whether replacement electrical plants could be certified and built rapidly enough to replace Indian Point, given New York state's "cumbersome regulation process", and also noted that replacement power from out of state sources will be hard to obtain because "New York has weak ties to generation capacity in other states." They said that possible consequences of closure will be a sharp increase in the cost of electricity for downstate users and even "rotating black-outs".
Several members of the House of Representatives representing districts near the plant have also opposed recertification, including Democrats Nita Lowey
Nita Lowey
Nita Melnikoff Lowey is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1993. She is a member of the Democratic Party. She previously represented the 20th district from 1989 to 1993.-Early life, education and career:...
, Maurice Hinchey
Maurice Hinchey
Maurice Dunlea Hinchey , is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1993. He is a member of the Democratic Party...
, and Eliot Engel and then Republican member Sue Kelly.
Economic Impact
An April 2004 report by the Nuclear Energy Institute found that “the total economic impact of the Indian Point plant on Westchester, Orange, Rockland, Putnam and Dutchess counties for 2002 was $763.3 million. Indian Point’s total impact on New York State’s economy for the same period was $811.7 million and $1.5 billion for the U.S. economy.“The economic activity generated by Indian Point create(d) another 1,200 jobs in the five-county region. Given the combination of employees at the plant and secondary jobs created by Indian Point’s economic activity, the plant is responsible for 2,500 jobs in Westchester, Orange, Rockland, Putnam and Dutchess counties.”
See also
- American Nuclear SocietyAmerican Nuclear SocietyThe American Nuclear Society is an international, not-for-profit 501 scientific and educational organization with a membership of approximately 11,000 scientists, engineers, educators, students, and other associate members. Approximately 900 members live outside the United States in 40 countries....
- Anti-nuclear movement in the United StatesAnti-nuclear movement in the United StatesThe anti-nuclear movement in the United States consists of more than 80 anti-nuclear groups which have acted to oppose nuclear power or nuclear weapons, or both, in the United States. These groups include the Abalone Alliance, Clamshell Alliance, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research,...
- Brittle PowerBrittle PowerBrittle Power: Energy Strategy for National Security is a 1982 book by Amory B. Lovins and L. Hunter Lovins, prepared originally as a Pentagon study, and re-released in 2001 following the September 11 attacks. The book argues that U.S. domestic energy infrastructure is very vulnerable to...
- Consolidated EdisonConsolidated EdisonConsolidated Edison, Inc. is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the United States, with approximately $14 billion in annual revenues and $36 billion in assets...
- Entergy Corporation
- Environmentalist movement
- Nuclear accidents in the United StatesNuclear accidents in the United StatesAccording to a 2010 survey of energy accidents, there have been at least 56 accidents near nuclear reactors in the United States . The most serious of these was the Three Mile Island accident in 1979...
- Nuclear and radiation accidentsNuclear and radiation accidentsA nuclear and radiation accident is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency as "an event that has led to significant consequences to people, the environment or the facility...
- Nuclear Energy InstituteNuclear Energy InstituteThe Nuclear Energy Institute is a nuclear industry lobbying group in the United States.- Synopsis :According to its website, the NEI "develops policy on key legislative and regulatory issues affecting the industry. NEI then serves as a unified industry voice before the U.S...
- Nuclear Information and Resource ServiceNuclear Information and Resource ServiceThe Nuclear Information and Resource Service is an anti-nuclear group founded in 1978 to be the information and networking center for citizens and organizations concerned about nuclear power, radioactive waste, radiation and sustainable energy issues...
- Nuclear safety in the U.S.
- Union of Concerned ScientistsUnion of Concerned ScientistsThe Union of Concerned Scientists is a nonprofit science advocacy group based in the United States. The UCS membership includes many private citizens in addition to professional scientists. James J...
External links
- Entergy Nuclear: Indian Point
- DoE Page
- Entergy: "It's Right For New York"
- Entergy: "Indian Point Energy Center: Safe. Secure. Vital."
- Riverkeeper.org: "Indian Point"
- Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition (IPSEC)
- Indian Point Area Radiation Monitoring Alerts
- How secure are U.S. nuclear power plants? from Grist MagazineGrist MagazineGrist is a free American liberal non-profit online magazine that has been publishing environmental news and commentary with a wry twist since 1999. Grists taglines are "Gloom and doom with a sense of humor" and "A beacon in the smog"...
- "Study finds new earthquake dangers for NYC",Associated Press, August 23, 2008
- Indian Point: From Amusement Park to Power Plant New York Times Apr 8, 2003
- Indian Point 1 (drawing)