UPDATE ON INDIAN POINT RELICENSING:
Clearwater is fighting to close the aging, leaking Indian Point nuclear plant, which is reaching the end of its designed 40-year lifespan and applying to renew its license for an unthinkable 20 years. Clearwater is one of three parties with standing before the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (the others are Riverkeeper and New York State) to challenge Indian Point’s relicensing. Clearwater was also among the 45 groups and individuals nationwide demanding the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) suspend all new licensing of nuclear plants in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.
Click here to view Clearwater’s Indian Point Campaign Documents and Filings
Click here to download an Indian Point Fact Sheet
Giving All Citizens a Voice in the Relicensing Decision
Clearwater has gathered new evidence and filed testimony the NRC must consider in the relicensing process. It shows that Indian Point’s continued operation not only threatens residents’ safety in general, but specifically violates federal law and environmental justice, because it disproportionately threatens the safety of the very young, the very old, lower-income and minority residents. more…
Challenging Spin, Leveling the Playing Field
Entergy seeks to dominate the regulatory process, spin media discourse and fund “astroturf” front groups to manipulate public opinion. But Clearwater is determined to challenge that, level the playing field, and help nurture a genuine, broad-based movement of people who want to close the plant. more…
Read Clearwater’s testimony on Entergy front groups to the NRC ….. and the judge’s response
WHY WE MUST CLOSE INDIAN POINT NOW
Indian Point is sited in the most populous location of any US nuclear plant, 25 miles north of Manhattan, with 20 million people living within a 50-mile radius. A catastrophic accident at Indian Point could kill tens of thousands, cause many more longer-term cancers and render NYC and much of the Hudson Valley uninhabitable. Elevated cancer rates, contamination of groundwater and environmental damage to the Hudson River ecosystem are already occurring. These are unacceptable prices to keep paying for replaceable power from Indian Point we don’t even need (much of which is sold out of state).
A Growing, Inescapable Threat
Indian Point is aging, embrittled, leaking, obsolete and a growing threat to public safety. Residents could not escape a serious accident if one occurred, because the evacuation plan has been shown to be ineffective and unable to protect the public. more …
Download the Witt report on emergency preparedness at Indian Point
Health and Environmental Damage
Even without a severe accident, studies already implicate Indian Point in current, measurable health and environmental damage in our area, including increased radiation exposure, elevated cancer rates and massive fish kills. more…
Read about RPHP’s research on elevated cancer rates near Indian Point
View an RNN investigative report on thyroid cancer and Indian Point
Worse than Fukushima
The meltdown of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was a wake-up call that we ignore at our peril. It could happen here, and if it did, the consequences would be much, much worse than they were in Japan. more…
Read Victor Gilinski’s New York Times oped “Indian Point: The Next Fukushima?”
Download the Physicians for Social Responsibility report, “Lessons from Fukushima and Chernobyl”
Download the Union of Concerned Scientists study “Chernobyl on the Hudson?”
HOW WE CAN CLOSE INDIAN POINT,
AND WHAT WE’LL HAVE WHEN WE DO
Governor Cuomo and many other elected officials have taken a strong stance calling for the closure of Indian Point and replacing its power with cleaner, safer alternatives. The operating licenses for Indian Point’s two reactors expire in 2013 and 2015, respectively. If the plant is not relicensed by 2015, decommissioning and new energy infrastructure can create more jobs, and replace the electricity more safely, reliably, and cost-effectively. That will put the economy, environment, health and safety of our region on a sounder, safer and more sustainable footing.
Clean Energy
Practical, available, cleaner alternatives including energy efficiency, renewable energy such as wind and solar, and new transmission lines to allow other generators to serve downstate markets, could easily replace Indian Point’s power several times over, allowing our economy room to grow. more…
Jobs and a Sustainable Economy
Transitioning to clean energy is our region’s biggest economic development opportunity. Wind and solar projects, new transmission lines and retrofits are powerful creators of skilled, local jobs and powerful attractors of investment.more…
Learn more about Clearwater’s Green Cities Initiative
A Voice in Our Community’s Future
Closing Indian Point and transitioning to a clean energy economy would mean that the public interest finally prevailed over Entergy’s corporate interest, and that our residents and communities were empowered to choose a better future for themselves. more…
GET INVOLVED! Contact Manna Jo Greene Clearwater Environmental Action Director, mannajo@clearwater.org, 845 265-8080, ext 7113 to find out about volunteer opportunities for the Indian Point Campaign.
Useful Links:
Lamont Dougherty/Columbia University Study stating Indian Point is built on the worst spot for quake risk in the metro area
http://www.earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/2235
Indian Point Nowhere to Run, Video by Tobe Carey
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pFqKLH928Y
International Atomic Energy Agency:
www.iaea.org
NukeFree.org was organized in 2007 by musicians Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and Graham Nash, and longtime energy activists and is an on-going grassroots campaign committed to preventing the construction of new nuclear reactors and paving the way for an energy economy based on renewables, efficiency and conservation.
“Reactor Core Cooling”, David Lochbaum, Union of Concerned Scientists:
http://allthingsnuclear.org/post/3859682324/reactor-core-cooling
“Left of the Hudson: Lamont-Doherty scientist says the region is overdue for a big quake”: http://www.lefthudson.com/2011/02/lamont-doherty-scientist-says-region-is.htm
Roger Witherspoon interviews David Lochbaum, nuclear safety engineer, Union of Concerned Scientists, and a consultant to both industry and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission: A Nuclear Hail Mary – Seawater or Disaster « Energy Matters
