Cuomo urges broader Indian Point review

The German government is furious with efforts by an operator of two nuclear reactors near Hamburg to play down two recent incidents at the two reactors. New York State attorney general Andrew Cuomo does not want something similar to happen in his state, and he is demanding that federal officials consider terrorism, evacuation plans, and population density as they decide whether to relicense the Indian Point nuclear power plants. If such factors are included, he said, it could mean the shutdown of the two reactors.

The Albany Times Union writes that Cuomo announced last Thursday that he has filed a brief in support of an appeal undertaken last month by Westchester County executive Andrew Spano and two New Jersey environmental groups. Spano is appealing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s refusal to change the relicensing criteria. “This brief raises serious questions about the NRC relicensing process — a process that ignores important factors about nuclear power plant safety and is stacked in favor of plant operators,” Cuomo said in his announcement.

Entergy Nuclear, owner of the two Indian Point plants in Buchanan, thirty-five miles north of midtown Manhattan, has applied for new licenses that would allow the plants to run until 2033 and 2035. Many of the groups that have been trying to close Indian Point since the terrorist attacks of 2001 are now trying to block the relicensing. Under current regulations, relicensing would focus mostly on how Entergy plans to deal with the aging of the plant structure.