Emergency Plans Recertified (Indian point Nuclear reactor near NYC)

(1010 WINS) (WASHINGTON) Federal officials will recertify emergency plans for the area around the Indian Point nuclear power station, effectively overriding opposition from local officials who felt evacuation procedures wouldn't protect residents from radiation in a terrorist attack.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is expected to announce the decision as early as Friday afternoon, said government sources, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The decision caps months of standoffs and negotiations among local, state, and federal authorities over terrorism concerns surrounding the plant in Buchanan, N.Y., 35 miles north of midtown Manhattan.

Executives in the four counties closest to Indian Point -- Westchester, Rockland, Orange and Putnam -- refused to recertify the existing evacuation plans, prompting New York state to do the same.

FEMA determined it did not need the counties' paperwork because it had worked closely with local authorities to craft the evacuation plan, said a source familiar with the decision.

Earlier, FEMA officials had warned that without proper submissions from local authorities, they might have to notify the Nuclear Regulatory Commission they could not give "reasonable assurance" existing emergency plans adequately protect residents. That move could have led to the plant's closure.

The nuclear power plant has always faced some opposition from local groups, but the shutdown movement gained momentum after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. One of the jetliners hijacked by terrorists that day flew over Indian Point on its way to the World Trade Center.

Since then, dozens of municipalities and more than 200 elected officials in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey have endorsed efforts to close Indian Point.

NRC officials have repeatedly insisted the design and safety enhancements made since Sept. 11, 2001, are more than adequate to deter or resist a terrorist attack.

But a January review by James Lee Witt, a former FEMA director now working as a private consultant, found the site's evacuation plans did not properly address the possible effects of a terrorist attack.

A key issue for many critics of FEMA and the NRC is the practical effect of any evacuation order on a frightened civilian population. Some lawmakers fear that if there were a direct attack on the facility, residents would flood the area's roadways, causing massive delays and hampering evacuation and rescue efforts.

State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky and others have argued that "shadow evacuation" -- when people outside the emergency zone decide to leave the area as well -- would worsen the problem.

A recent report commissioned by the plant's owner found that it would take several hours longer than previously thought -- about 10 hours -- to evacuate the 10-mile zone around the plant.

As part of the certification process, FEMA had pushed local authorities to provide up-to-date plans for events like school evacuations. But Westchester and Rockland counties, citing the Witt report, refused to supply the requested documents by the May 2 deadline, leaving the agency in an awkward position. Putnam and Orange counties provided some documents but never officially signed off on the plans.

In the past, the NRC has relied on word from FEMA that an adequate emergency plan is in place.

The NRC regulates nuclear power plants but does not own or operate Indian Point. The agency has the power -- never used -- to shut down a plant for an inadequate emergency plan.

Indian Point provides 5.3 percent of the state's generation capacity, more than 1,500 jobs and millions of dollars in tax payments.

There have been a ton of scare ads put out on tv and on the radio trying to make people think this plant could go up in a mushroom cloud. Stealth Greepeace campaign bites the dust.

I think economic reality is starting to hit for a lot of New Yorkers. After shutting down the Shoreham plant in Long Island, canceling contracts with Hydro-Quebec over tribal land disputes, and turning down a proposal to extend a new natural gas pipeline through Westchester County, the people of New York aren't left with too many options when it comes to energy sources.

EDUCATING the public may be the best course of action.

Making people aware of what 'design basis analysis' means, and how it's applied, would probably aleviate much of the anxiety created, and perpetuated, by the media and anyone else who might capitalize by spreading fear and ignorance.

It's amazing to me that there has never been any effort by mainstream media to provide any truly useful information concerning commercial nuclear generation, the amount of regulation and oversight involved, and the conservative nature and over-engineering involved in ALL aspects of design, operation and maintenance.

The phrase "Too cheap to meter" was probably not intended as a joke.

there was a study done on the economic impact of closing indian point. The property taxes in the town where the plant is located would have to raise their taxes 75% to keep it's current funding level.

That woke people right up.

Thanks for the information. That's the same rationale that many rural towns use when they offer to build toxic waste dumps that nobody else would ever want -- the revenue these things generate is enormous.

As an overtaxed New Yorker I think they should run a "real"evacuation scenario and leave all the bridge and thruway tolls in force. this is the only way this state will ever balance the books.

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