Indian Point Faces Re-licensing Issues

Dismayed by the decision of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reject Westchester’s request for broader criteria when considering the relicensing of Indian Point, County Executive Andy Spano has filed a petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, asking for review of the December determination of the NRC.

“We gave the NRC a detailed petition as to why we feel its re-licensing criteria should be updated,” Spano said. “It was summarily rejected, basically because they said they changed the criteria in 2000 and nothing had happened since that would cause them to revisit the issue. Did they forget September 11th ever happened?”

Spano has consistently said that if this were Indian Point’s first license, it would be rejected due to population density, congested road network and for safety and security reasons based on an evacuation plan that would not be able to work in a fast-breaking scenario as in a terrorist attack.

The county petition to the NRC raised these and other issues and said the criteria for re-licensing should be the same as if the plant owners were applying for the license for the first time today. It must consider siting issues, as well as the age and the continuous problems at the plant.

“I don’t think the NRC ever met a nuclear plant it didn’t like. I want them to put public safety first. It is not enough to rubber stamp a re-licensing request and then say that, if there are indeed problems, another NRC division will deal with the oversight,” Spano said.
Current re-licensing guidelines for nuclear plants allow the NRC to consider only issues such as the age of the power plants. Other issues such as local demographics, siting and the ability to conduct an effective emergency evacuation are excluded from consideration in renewal decisions.

“The decision not to include these other factors is ridiculous and potentially affects the safety of all residents in our area,” Spano said. “I will continue to do everything to fight this. In particular, we insist that the NRC consider the appropriateness of existing sites, not just take such sites as givens. Furthermore, we insist that the NRC consider the current difficulties and realities when an emergency evacuation takes place in a dense, congested population center with limited roadways, even though the area was not as developed when the facility was first constructed.”

Among the questions that the county feels are relevant are the following:

Could the same plant be licensed on the same site today?
Could a new plant, designed and built to the current standards, be licensed on the same site today?
Have the local societal and infrastructure factors, which influenced the licensing of the plant originally, changed in a manner that would make the plant less apt to be licensed today?

Have other local conditions, such as environmental regulations or population distribution, which affect the plants’ continued operation, changed?