Posted on 07/15/2004 11:59:34 AM PDT by presidio9
A coalition of organizations seeking the shutdown of the Indian Point nuclear power plants said Wednesday that a new plan for storing radioactive waste on the site creates "another bull's-eye on the Hudson River."
"They're just adding to the risk" of contamination from an accident or attack at the plants, said Kyle Rabin, a policy analyst for Riverkeeper, one of the organizations in the Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition. "They say they're doing what we're asking but they're not."
A spokesman for Entergy Nuclear Northeast, owner of the plants in Buchanan, defended the plan. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is holding a public meeting in Peekskill on Thursday night to discuss it.
Entergy plans to move some of the 12-foot-long rods of spent fuel that are now kept in pools and embed them in stainless steel and concrete containers. These "dry casks" would then be held on a concrete platform about the size of a football field.
Though opponents have said in the past that dry casks are safer than the pools, they pointed out at Wednesday's news conference that the casks at Indian Point would not replace the pools but supplement them, allowing Entergy to put more spent fuel into the pools, now crowded with over 1,400 tons of waste.
They also criticized the brand of cask being used, saying questions had been raised about its durability, and they criticized the absence of earthen berms that could protect the casks. They said that while the NRC describes the casking as a "temporary storage solution," a court decision on Friday raised doubts about when permanent storage -- inside Yucca Mountain in Nevada -- would be available.
They said the best way to minimize the risk of radiation from spent fuel was to close down the two reactors, thereby ending the production of spent fuel.
"There's no good way to deal with something that's so toxic for so long," said Marilyn Elie of the Westchester Citizens Awareness Network.
Entergy spokesman Jim Steets acknowledged that "The point is not to reduce the volume in the pools but to make room so we can add new fuel." But he said the casks "will provide safe and secure storage regardless of when Yucca Mountain can begin to receive spent fuel."
He defended the safety and reliability of dry cask storage, saying it "meets all the NRC requirements and addresses all the issues associated with safety and security, including those concerns raised post-9/11."
Popular Mechanics follow up write up about the great northeast blackout.
Subnote on the side at the end of the article.
I dunno. My buddies in the tech biz tell me that the SCADA systems were vulnerable. Let's hope they've been hardened.
Perhaps slightly exaggerated; so what? The upshot is that we learned that SCADA systems are (or were) vulnerable.
Hope that was remedied, eh? Because Williams Companies uses those systems to pipeline petrol and natgas from Tx to the Midwest.
Fact remains that the network was hacked and not under the control of the people who should have been in control.
THAT is the main point.
Are they going to fix that or are they going to sit around and think about it, only time will tell.
Have you even bothered to find the article I mentioned?
Just because what you cite doesn't mention the lose of control for 12 to 18 hours in early 2001 doesn't mean diddly.
I could cite stuff like that and ask similar questions while knowing all along that what I'm citing is inaccurately cited as proof.
The SCADA network was hacked.
As far as I know it has not been hardened against attack.
After the blackout, the SCADA network was looked at, but brushed off as a method of taking down the northeast tier.
Matter of fact, there have been arrogant types claiming that it is impossible to take down the northeast tier power grid.
Just like arrogant types claimed that tehre would never be an attack on Americans on American soil.
Your being deceptive. THe owners of Indian Point also own 9 Mile in Oswego, NY, The Yankee Plant in VT, and the Pilgram plant in MA, and the service area is NY, VT, MA, and parts of CT and NH. To the best of my knowledge -- and I suspect that I have a bit more knowledge than most in this particular area -- nearly all of Indian Point's production is used locally. The excess capcity is from the other facilities that are sold wholesale into the power grid based upon a variety of longstanding agreements involving the NYPA and others.
No, that is NOT from teh article I'm mentioning.
The article had a subnote sideparagraph article about teh SCADA networks and whether or not they were vulnerable.
(See previous statement about it being a subnote.)
Article mentioned that they were hacked and uncontrolled for 12 to 18 hours in 2001.
Reading is fundamental.
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