Picking up where the previous state attorney general—current Governor Andrew Cuomo—left off, New York AG Eric Schneiderman is going after Indian Point, one of the nation’s oldest nuclear power plants, arguing that its attempts to avoid fire safety regulations warrant the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to take action.

 

“Indian Point is currently in violation of established fire safety regulations and in seeking more than 100 exemptions from those regulations, undermines the efforts to secure the reactors lying within a 50-mile radius of where more than 20 million people live, work and travel,” Schneiderman said in a statement.

 

Indian Point, located only 25 miles north of New York City, has not installed required fire detectors or fire suppression systems in various locations, according to the attorney general. Entergy, the plant owner, also has not reinforced electrical cables to withstand prolonged (one to three hours) exposure to fire.

 

Governor Cuomo urged the NRC to close down Indian Point when he was the state's attorney general, citing the plant’s proximity to the Ramapo earthquake fault and its discharge of heated water into the Hudson River.

 

In related news, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group urged the Obama administration to revoke the licensing of Indian Point as part of its call for freezing construction of new nuclear reactors until the crisis in Japan has been resolved and fully examined.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Indian Point Nuclear Plant Violating Safety Rules: New York AG (by Patrick Badgley, Platts)

U.S. PIRG Urges Freeze on New Nuclear Reactors, Relicensing (by Greg Clary, Lohud.com)

Petition for Enforcement (Nuclear Regulatory Commission)

Nuclear Accident in U.S. Would Cost Taxpayers a Fortune (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)