It was announced this week that the Indian Point nuclear power facility will close by 2021. The Indian River plant is about 25 miles north of New York City. It sits on, not one, but two geological fault lines. A core breach caused by an earthquake would be disastrous. Standard procedure is to evacuate everyone within a 50 mile radius of a core breach, which, in this case, is close to 20 million people. Even without an earthquake, the facility has been called a “disaster waiting to happen.” The fifty-four year old facility has been the site of fires, automation failures and radiation leaks. The oldest of the three reactors, which did not meet earthquake standards, was shut down in 1974, while the other two reactors are each over 40 years old.

What does all this have to do with the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater?  In 1966, in despair over the pollution of his beloved Hudson River, folk singer and activist, Pete Seeger announced plans to “build a boat to save the river.” The Clearwater‘s mission has been to bring people down to the Hudson River, so that they would care about it and take action to clean it up.  It is not surprising, given their environmental focus, that the Clearwater organization has been longtime opponent of the Indian River nuclear plant. Clearwater is “cautiously optimistic” about the news of the shutdown.  In a press release they said, in part: 

“This is definitely a step in the right direction, but it still leaves us in danger for three to four more years. Indian Point has had an abysmal history of emergency shutdown, radioactive leaks, equipment failures, transformer explosions, degraded bolts inside the reactor core, and other problems.  Without a viable evacuation plan, if something should go wrong between now and then,” said Manna Jo Greene, Environmental Action Director for Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, “the 20 million people that live or work within 50 miles of the plant and beyond remain in danger.”

“The intense water withdrawals used to cool the plant will continue to harm Hudson River fish and other aquatic species. This means four more years of massive fish kill, including billions of eggs and larvae through April 2021,” said Dave Conover, Clearwater’s Interim Executive Director.

“The good news is that they have agreed to move old (but still highly radioactive) fuel rods from the severely overcrowded fuel pools, to safer dry-cask storage, to make long-overdue repairs, and to allow more inspections and better oversight” said Greene.

To execute the shutdown, a transition plan must protect workers; retaining those who have institutional memory to ensure safe decommissioning.  Recently a phase out plan was negotiated for Diablo Canyon, the last operating nuclear plant in California, which is scheduled to close in 6 years.  Their transition plan includes replacing the aging nuclear facility with 100% renewable energy, while retaining the most valuable workers, and retraining those who are not as needed after closure for jobs in the renewable energy industry.  Clearwater believes that the New York plan for a “just” transition, should include New York’s entire nuclear fleet of six reactors, and be based on realistic but accelerated implementation of on- and off-shore wind, community and large-scale solar, more large and low-impact hydroelectric facilities, with robust storage systems to ensure reliability.

Even without a plan for renewable replacement energy in place, both the NY State Independent System Operators and the NYS Department of State have determined that there is currently sufficient energy on the grid to do without Indian Point due to energy efficiency and reduced energy consumption and the rapid increase in renewables resources.

Clearwater is also calling for a comprehensive plan to ensure safe decommissioning that is funded by Entergy, and doesn’t end up becoming a burden to ratepayers or taxpayers.