Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission moved to conduct a second analysis of safety measures at Indian Point, following a determination that improper data was used in the initial decision, the Journal News reported.
- NRC commissioners unanimously reversed an earlier administrative ruling, and found that the agency's staff analysis of severe accident minimization at the Indian Point plant erred on several points and violates the National Environmental Policy Act.
- New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman hailed the decision as an important step in the state's bid to close the plant. The state maintains Entergy's environmental assessments failed to accurately model the cleanup and decontamination costs of an accident.
Dive Insight:
The NRC's decision hinges on the data used when its staff last analyzed severe accident minimization at the Indian Point facility as part of the plant's relicensing process. Staff will redo its analysis, considering data specific to the Indian Point plant rather than from other sites, as it previously did.
According Schneiderman's office, NRC staff had relied on data from other sites, including sites surrounded by farmland, instead of site-specific data for Indian Point, which is located within 50 miles of New York City. And despite the data coming from unverified sources, staff moved ahead with it.
“I am heartened that the NRC Commissioners agreed with my office that Entergy and NRC staff have systematically undercounted the costs and impacts associated with severe reactor accidents at the Indian Point plant,” Schneiderman said in a statement. “The Commissioners’ decision requires the NRC staff to do what should have been done years ago: provide an accurate account of cost-effective upgrades at this aging nuclear plant that can prevent or minimize severe accidents."
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has argued that the plant cannot be safely operated so close to the largest city in the United States, and has pressed to shut it down. This week's decision is a win for the state, following a less-favorable decision in April when the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board rejected a request to require leak testing every decade, as opposed to every 15 years.
Earlier this year, Cuomo announced there were "alarming levels of radioactivity at three monitoring wells" at the Indian Point facility, with one showing a nearly 65,000% increase. The contamination had not migrated offsite, and was not expected to pose an immediate threat to public health, but it heightened calls to close down the facility.
In 2015, New York denied Indian Point a water use permit, and Exelon's filed a lawsuit in response alleging that the state's objections were based on concerns over the plant's safety, which is regulated by the federal government.
