Posted on 04/04/2010 3:59:54 AM PDT by reaganaut1
In a major victory for environmental advocates, New York State has ruled that outmoded cooling technology at the Indian Point nuclear power plant kills so many Hudson River fish, and consumes and contaminates so much water, that it violates the federal Clean Water Act.
The decision is a blow to the plant’s owner, the Entergy Corporation, which now faces the prospect of having to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to build stadium-size cooling towers, or risk that Indian Point’s two operating reactors — which supply 30 percent of the electricity used by New York City and Westchester County — could be forced to shut down.
Entergy officials said that they were “disappointed” in the ruling and that they might fight it in court. The original federal licenses for the two 1970s-era reactors expire in 2013 and 2015, and a water quality certificate is a prerequisite for a 20-year renewal by the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. But a prolonged appeal in New York could delay a shutdown, Diane Screnci, a spokeswoman for the commission, said late Saturday.
An Entergy spokesman said that converting Indian Point’s cooling system would cost $1.1 billion and would require shutting both reactors down entirely for 42 weeks.
The ruling in New York comes after President Obama pressed for the construction of new nuclear plants in his State of the Union address. But it is the second instance since of a state asserting its power to threaten an existing nuclear plant. In Vermont, the State Senate voted overwhelmingly in February to block operation of Entergy’s Vermont Yankee plant after 2012, citing leaks of radioactive tritium, inaccurate testimony by company officials and other problems.
Nuclear proponents said they hoped that the federal government would determine that the nation’s energy needs should take precedence
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Again we made the mistake of not covering the cesspool out back. Now we have to deal with the sH##
Entergy is having problems with its Vermont Yankee plant, too. My idiot congresscritter and senator wannabe, Paul Hodes, wants the thing shut down. May the bird of paradise fly up his nose. I wouldn’t hire the damn fool to turn my grindstone.
Entergy sure didn’t help themselves by lying about underground pipes containing radioactive water. I thought they had a fighting chance but now they are finished in Vermont. I think the Vermont economy will be finished too.
With leadership like Entergy has, it deserves this. When Cap and Tax was on the floor, CEO Wayne Leonard came out in support of the bill. He does not care since all charges are a pass through.
Shut the units down and pass the expenses through to NYC and Westchester, both communities are huge Kenyan supporters.
Amen: Brother.
More a blow from a rubber mallet.
America is committing economic suicide on the installment plan. New York is sitting in the bathtub, bleeding from both risks, stoned on ludes and screaming that somebody better give it a transfusion.
The rest of the world will advance with unlimited, essentially free nuclear power while we will ride bicycles and eat turnips grown in the back yard. Third world here we come. Kenya is now our role model.
Makes sense to me...shut ‘em down. Let the 0bamunists in the Big Yapple pedal their ‘personal generators’ to charge the cell phones they use to call their liberal gasbag representatives to rain more destruction on the American economy.
Sounds like a plan, to me.
I can picture every ‘metro-sexual’ holding up a little paper windmill to power his blackberry, while trying to balance his latte and cup cake.
Is “Escape from New York” beoming more probable every day?
They should just shut it down. At some point the public needs to become aware of the cost of radical environmentalism. Brownouts and blackouts in NYC would be an excellent object lesson.
Curiouser and curiouser
Only if they are USDA inspected. There was a bill moving through Congress late last year that would essentially outlaw backyard gardens.....
Pass the word to all southbound New Yorkers: Tennessee Sucks!
Those CANDU plants across the border are older than Indian Point 2 and 3 and are not in that good shape either. Several of the Bruce units have been shut down for several years.
And wasn’t Chelsea’s dad, good ol’ Web himself, the only one not pardoned at the end of the Clinton circus ?
We could go on and on about this one.
The EPA needs to be culled out of existence. It isn’t needed and has grown beyond it’s mandate.
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